Hope For Nora: Humbled by Humanity

Just 4 nights ago my breath was literally taken away. It has taken me so long to post about it because I am at a loss to find the right words. What I can say is that Friday, September 28th will be one those days for me. One that I look back on with fondness when I need a good memory to get through a tough day. When I worry about scans, urine, the stage 4 statistics...the days when I want time to stop because I am so afraid that future days will not be so sweet. I have been banking these days for almost 2 years. And while I do have many memories of which I am incredibly grateful, there will just never be enough. Never enough Friday, September 28ths.

How this all started...

Our good friend from Children's Hospital, Tracy, asked me a month or so ago if Nora would be interested in being the North Allegheny TigerTHON kid. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, so she sent me some information on the THON event and it didn't take long for me to enthusiastically answer YES!

Tiger THON is an incredible event...just check it out!

Tiger THON

What we knew before Friday (the THON kick-off event):

We knew the girls would be the honorary team captains for the football game, and that Nora would be doing the coin toss (although I didn't think she would actually be tossing the coin for an undefeated Western PA 6A team). We also knew the girls would be able to do some cheers with the cheerleaders and student section, but we were so unprepared for how incredibly moving the night would be, just how special Heidi and Nora would be treated, and how wonderful the student community at NASH really is! No matter what I write, or how I write it, it will not do the evening justice, but I am still going to try.

with Nurse Jen...our favorite!

When I say the red carpet was literally rolled out, I will tell you that we parked inside the gates of the stadium. If that isn't royal treatment at a high school football game, I am not sure what is! We were then granted full access to the track area with the cheerleaders, Tiger mascot, and players.

Dozens of students came up to meet the girls. They played with them, chased them, held them and truly made them feel like they were the only 2 girls inside a stadium of thousands. When it was just about time for the coin toss, a short video played about our family's journey with Neuroblastoma (we shot it at the stadium just weeks prior). Please try to ignore the fact that Adam appears mute in the video. He is a man of few words...😂

We then walked across the 50 yard line for the coin toss. The referee, who can I just say was one of the nicest men I have ever met, handed Nora the silver dollar. She wanted me to go with her, so I crouched down just behind her as she tossed it into the air. It flew behind her and landed directly onto my back (of course it did!) and I thought that was the end of our (less than perfect) contribution to the game. As I grabbed her hand to walk back, the referee stopped me, and handed me a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses (unbelievable!). That was around the time that Nora and I both hugged him just before he placed the silver dollar into my palm and told me to put it in her scrapbook.

This might seem dumb, but at that exact moment, I knew God planned this for our family. How did that man know that I do have a scrapbook (of sorts) for Nora's journey? How did he know that I have saved everything. It started out as a small box on the dining room table. It was the place we put every medical paper. Every consent to treat, every discharge booklet, every insurance paper, bill, diagnosis, appointment. The box started to fill up and it gave me anxiety. It stared to overflow and make me cringe with the bad days and memories wrapped up inside that box. But I was determined that one day the box would hold more good papers than bad. It had to become more than a reminder of pain and suffering. It needed to be a reminder of strength and determination. That damn box needed to be more than sadness. Nora's beads of courage, her check-ups, pictures of her last treatment, cards, letters, and gifts started to fill the box. The box became exactly what I wanted it to become. And now, it will hold a memory from the past weekend-the silver coin that signifies a chance. And Friday was our chance. A way to give back. To raise awareness. And, selfishly, a way to add a happy memory to our box, which is starting to overflow with good memories, drowning out the bad at the bottom.

We then walked back to the track, where Nora and Heidi were met with dozens of students-each one holding a sign and/or a red rose. As the girls walked (and I sobbed behind them), they were handed single red roses along the track, amidst a sea of signs of encouragement and yellow ribbons. At the end of the line of students high fiving, pounding and hugging our girls, were 2 build-a-bear boxes. (Both girls have slept with their bears each night since).

The girls did do a couple cheers with the cheerleaders and were then also whisked away to the student section where cheers erupted for them. I just can't even IMAGINE how special they felt. What I do know, though, is how very much they deserved it. They have both been through trauma that I hope will be a distant memory one day, forgotten underneath all the good memories, just like the papers in that box on the dining room table. My goal is to give them 10 wonderful experiences for every single painful one. Being a part of NASH's TigerTHON is going to make that happen.