The Angela “Angie” Taylor Benefit

I Remember – by Drew Taylor

Congratulations! You just got the great news you’d been hoping for! You got that work promotion after months of grinding or closed on your first house or got a new dog! Who’s the first person you’re calling? Who can you not wait to tell every worthless detail of what happened because you know they will be just as happy and excited as you are? That person must mean a lot to you. It can be a friend, sibling, parent, spouse; Hell, it could be your next-door neighbor Ted because Ted rocks and loves a good story. Fred Rogers aka Mister Rogers had a fantastic moment during his Lifetime Achievement Award speech (linked below). He asked for 10 seconds of silence while everyone in the audience thought about all those that had helped them along their life’s journey. “Some are near, some are far and some are in Heaven.” I hope everyone reading this has them near or at least not too far.

https://youtu.be/7LQos8Xa7ms

Have you ever reflected on an event in your life that you know actually happened but it still doesn’t seem real? You know it happened but your brain still twists some facts around or moves the timing of events so you question the event itself even happening the way you thought it did. I personally have plenty of those moments in my head but I will never forget every minute I lived on December 31st 2010 through January 2nd 2011. I remember where I was standing at work when I got the phone call. I remember telling my Aunt to pack an overnight bag, I’m driving us to Sacramento tonight because my gut tells me tomorrow is too late. I remember pulling into the 7/11 next to the apartment complex at exactly Midnight, ushering in the new year. I remember 15 minutes later when I would ultimately hear the last words my mother would ever say before she fell back asleep never to wake again. I remember the black bag they put her in that evening. I remember how hard it rained all night. I remember forgetting how to sleep. I remember the drive back to Ventura County alone and the Grapevine overpass being closed because of weather. I remember a 7 hour drive after the worst day of my life turning into a stressful traffic filled 16 hour drive through rain and snow. I remember getting home and processing the last 48 hours. I had just been here and my life was great, yet two days later I’m drifting alone at sea with no paddle to steer myself. I remember when I lost my person that I wanted to call as soon as something happened in my life.

Cancer sucks. My mother was diagnosed at just 29 years old with aggressive breast cancer. Her treatment was so intense, what saved her life in that moment caused it to end before she turned 50. Ovarian cancer got the headline, but the doctors said it was everywhere in the end. Would someone in her same situation today have a better chance because of medical progress and different forms of treatment? Maybe. I’d sell my soul for that “maybe”. So why wouldn’t I want to donate some money for cancer research to give someone else that “maybe”? There is literally no answer I could give that doesn’t circle around to, I can’t. I donate what I can and write this blog in hopes that you the reader are touched enough to give someone you don’t know that “maybe”. Let the person they want to call the most have more time to be excited, sad, thankful, upset or elated with them because once that phone turns off for good there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do to have it ring one more time. Thank you for reading and any donation you can spare towards ending cancer.