Aug 23 09
It has been a very busy and, mostly good, last few days.
Chris, Ali & I traveled to Memphis, TN on Thursday to tour the cancer research facilities, patient housing, and hospital campus at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
After getting a nice early start (6:00am flight!!!), we arrived in Memphis and took a tour of the city. If you’ve never been to Memphis, you’ve got to hook up with Tad at American Dream Safari Tours and let him show you his town in his ‘55 Caddy. If you like BBQ, you’ll be in heaven as the smell of BBQ permeates the whole city. We came across a music video being shot on Beale Street and Ali got her picture taken with one of the guys from Three 6 Mafia. We bumped into them again in the elevator at the hotel. I don’t really know much about them except that they’ve won an Academy Award for the movie “Hustle & Flow” and they were friendly guys. It’s a really exciting city, yet solemn at the same time, as we stopped at the Lorraine Motel where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. He was such an incredible man! I’ve always admired him and the more I read, the more impressed I am.
On Friday, we took the grand tour at St. Jude’s. Wow - a very impressive place. And it was all started by one man (Danny Thomas) who wanted to do something to honor St. Jude. They are doing some amazing research there and I was really impressed by their extremely generous and comprehensive approach to patient and family care.
The true highlight of our trip, though, came on Sat. as we drove 3 hours south to Jackson, MS to visit a truly remarkable young lady, Carrie Maniscalco. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/carriemaniscalco Carrie has been in and out of hospitals for about 2 1/2 years and was one of the very original “B+ Heroes”. We have been looking to meet Carrie for sooooo long and it just worked out so well. Carrie’s Mom, Paula, was our co-conspirator as we surprised Carrie with our visit. She is such a brave, faith-filled, inspirational young lady. It was truly an honor for us to spend time with Carrie and Paula. We’ll post pictures shortly.
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Unfortunately, we did receive the very sad news on Thursday that a friend, Lynne Wallace, passed away at the age of 45 following a battle with leukemia. Lynne was so courageous and had such a great attitude. I sincerely treasured the visits that I had with Lynne in the hospital. Please join me in asking God to give Bill and their kids (and all their friends) the strength to cope with this great loss. May they be filled with wonderful memories of their wife/mother/friend and forever carry a piece of Lynne with them each day.
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Remember to join us as we celebrate Andrew’s birthday on Sept 3rd by participating in “B+ Day on Concord Pike”. Just print out the flyer from www.BePositive.org and present it to the various merchants.
Live Like Andrew & Dr. King - dream!
B+
Ali’s & Andrew’s proud Dad
www.BePositive.org