Cool Semi-Colon Thanksgiving Story (true and hot off the press)

After a very trying week in which I lost my boxer, Scout and oldest cat on the same day (Thursday) I was expending energy doing mindless things in the yard yesterday when it came time to take a water break. I came in and had a message on my answering machine from a man, Ed XXX saying I did not know him but I knew his daughter also named Lisa who died of colon cancer 5 years ago. He said I had sent a really nice note and he just wanted to know how I was doing. If I wanted to call back I could and he left his number.

Back then there were 4 of us Lisas that were fighting the **** cells and I didn’t know exactly which Lisa it was. I called him back and asked a few questions and as soon as he mentioned her husband’s name I knew it was Fitlisa from Ohio who was very helpful to me when I began my journey in 2004. Ed lives in Ottawa, Ca. and with the Canadian Thanksgiving being this weekend he was missing his daughter and was going thru the scrapbook his wife had put together for her. He came across the on-line obituary registry that had been posted here that some of us left messages on.

The more we talked the livelier his tone of voice became and I'm sure mine did the same. He asked me if I might know some of the others that had signed the registry that were strangers to him. He started to read the notes and cites of people that referenced ACS, CSN, or semi-colons and it was fun how many I did know. Some had lost their fight but he loved hearing of those that had beaten the beast and were living their lives (Emily, Lisa Rose, Stacy, Spongebob, Kanga and Kanort were some of the people that had signed her registry). New houses, marriages, triathlons, kids growing up, healing bags, traveling, he loved hearing who was doing what 5 ½ years after he lost his only daughter.

We ended up talking an hour and a half and I learned so much more about my semi-colon buddy. It was so cool listening to the proud papa talking about his “daddy’s girl”. It was also nice to tell him how important his daughter had been in how I approached and dealt with my situation. The one thing I remember the most about Fitlisa is how gracefully she dealt with adversity and that she was so kind and caring to everyone on the site, even newbies like me.

Ed’s first wife and Lisa’s mother died of brain cancer in 1989 and he has since remarried for 20 years and another small world piece of the story is that his new wife and I worked together in Washington, DC in the early 90s!! Neither of us could believe that part of the story.

I told him about losing my wonderful dog and one of my cats that had been so instrumental in my healing within hours of each other just the day before and that his call was a shot in my arm and that it wasn’t a coincidence. We laughed about how things can happen that are so out of our control; cosmic kinds of things.

To me it is an amazing Thanksgiving story and I’m not sure who got the most out of the call, me or him. A day later and I am still pumped about it.

So to all you semi-colons out there, what you do and say to and for each other is so very important and sometimes you never know how, who, and when it may help someone.

Lisa P.

Oh and to all our friends up north, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!