The Survivor's Lap

This evening we went to the Relay for Life in Baytown, my work sponsored a team, hence the pink shirts. It is the largest Relay for Life in the state and produces the most money for research, assistance, etc.

After the opening ceremony a giant sign is held up and children cancer survivors break through the sign. The opening lap is the Survivor's Lap and Heidi was nice enough to let Henry and myself walk with her.The woman next to Heidi is Connie, a co-worker of mine who survived a bout of cancer about five years ago. There were thousands of people there and it felt more like a state fair than anything else.

As we walked around during the Survivor's Lap these thousands of well wishers applauded, rang bells, rattles, and cheered. Some booths handed out flowers, cards, letters, and bracelets to the survivors. A spokesperson read the names of the survivors over the loud speaker and the path was lined with luminaries honoring the dead. The whole lap was touching.


I'm not going to lie to you I got choked up then and I'm tearing up now just thinking about it. Good job Heidi, cancer (and the treatment) took you to the edge of death but you came back, brought Henry with you, and now you get to walk the Survivor's Lap!

Unfortunately about half way around the Survivor's Lap Henry decided to see if he could get louder than all of the well-wishers and began screaming. The Relay goes on all night, concluding at 10 am tomorrow, unfortunately right after we left it began storming pretty bad and the entire area is under flash flood warning. I hope the walkers brought umbrellas.