When Abby-Jill moved out of her "earth suit" into her HEAVENLY one and is now TRULY "dancing with the stars" , she left behind a world that was made far better by her contributions to it.
I, for one, who has been proud (first mistake...)of being a "passionate person" in this beautiful "life dance", soon realized that my "passion" paled, by comparison to Abby-Jill's.
My team mate, Scott C., was fund raising and walking in her honor. I met her in person, during the August 07, Breast Cancer 3-Day . That day 
my life was permanently and INSTANTLY marked by her flame which burned deeply into my heart and mind. Passion? I had truly found what "passion" looked like... and it surely didn't look like me.
Debbie (Abby-Jill's sister) TIARA-wearing Abby-Jill (of course!) and their momma - day 3 - 2 miles from finish line!
How can someone who ,1.5 weeks prior, had fluid drained from her lungs, and who - just 5 days earlier had had chemotherapy - walk, laugh, walk, hug, embrace, laugh, love, walk, giggle, jiggle, dance, dance, dance to the music that was in HER head.
So here's the thing: since having been "torched" (yes "torched" , "sparked by flame") by Abby-Jill, I've, unwittingly, become a Breast Cancer fighter-no-that's-not-a-strong-enough-word...WARRIOR.
Now look: what I didn't see were the tears. the hair loss. the swelling. the pain, the agony, the horror that this disease caused as it created havoc in her body and consumed her. Her loved ones did.
I grieve for her loved ones. I cannot begin to imagine - to feel their enormous loss...
But I can feel for them, and I can create a stir to cause awareness and, hopefully, generate just a little bit of concern and compassion from an ambivalent world...
And so, I wear pink. It's not because I like pink- pink - is a girly, good-girl, prissy-stinking color. . More tom-boy than prissy, I'm more fond of chocolate and green and all things "earthy" - ...
Sadly, pink, in our current CULTURE often represents MARKETING MANIA at the expense of the pain, the sorrow, the struggle, the fight for life - that breast cancer causes.
Breast cancer is a killer.
Abby-Jill died at 43.
We were robbed.
Aunt Mildred Kirby (nee McCallister) died at 48.
We were robbed.
Breast cancer is a thief: stealing health and finances and time with loved ones.
There is nothing "pink" about it.
Pink won't bring 'em back.
May we not lose sight of what the battle really is.
May we continue to educate ourselves and refuse to "play in Pink".
Rather, may we use this nasty color to cause a stir, and in doing so,
enrage a world that so complacently accepts wigs and drawn-on eyebrows
as a way of making a cancer-ridden-patient "feel better"...
May we ask the questions... the difficult questions:
Early detection saves lives?
Early detection of something that is rampant - WHY IS IT RAMPANT? WHY?
What factors cause cancer to begin with?
What chemicals in our environment, food, water contribute?
Find the contributing factors, then we don't need to "detect" anything...
Sigh.
And as nauseating and distasteful as it is, if wearing stinking PINK will create a stir that causes someone to ask me what's up - I am willing to wear stinking PINK...
And so I walk - and always, always walking in memory of those who have lost their fight with this ugly disease , in honor of those who battle and in support of those whose lives are personally affected by it.
The flame of life that Abby-Jill had, that was extinguished in her death caused by breast cancer - carries on in those of us who refuse to sit by and allow breast cancer to take all of our loved ones...
without a fight.
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