Another Weekend to End Breast Cancer is complete. 60-km in 2 days. 1200+ walkers in Calgary and parts of it seem just as hard every year…
Standing with my 2-yr old daughter in the post-walk event area yesterday after the walkers had completed the first 32-km of their weekend, the emotions hit me again. The details a little different this year but the pause they caused just as sudden and just as devastating. My wife has said multiple times that there is this tangible palpable bond between our daughter and my mother, between grandmother and granddaughter and what a tragedy it would have been it they had never had the chance to meet, never had a chance to have that awesome connection.
Knowledge and treatments have come so far and still on this weekend I see people with bum knees, people carrying extra pounds, people in their 60s and 70s, people by themselves, all kinds of people… and they are walking… walking in the heat through the pain in their joints, the pain in their feet, their pain of loss, their pain of fear, solitude, helplessness… and they are walking… walking towards hope, towards healing towards wholeness and towards bonds between granddaughters and their grandmothers. Knowledge and treatments have come so far and still they walk.
I looked at my daughter and I thought, “This is all for you. All these people walking. All these tears this pain this strength this resilience this fiery stubborn determined hope, all of this is for you for the connection you have with you grandmother, a 2-time survivor, this is for your generation and those to follow, no one should be robbed of the pure joy of that hug between a grandmother and granddaughter.”
Thank you walkers. Be stubborn. Be the beacon of hope. We’ve come a long way and we can go further. Thank you.
