No April Fool's Joke-APRIL IS ESOPHAGEAL CANCER MONTH here in Virginia~petition your governor & requ

LorettaMarshall

Did you realize that APRIL has been declared ESOPHAGEAL CANCER MONTH?  The color is PERIWINKLE blue.   

In years past, many of us have petitioned the governors of our respective states and requested that the month of April be recognized in their particular state.  Several years ago now, my state of Virginia began honoring my request.  I asked again this year as well.  Last week I received a nice large certificate in the mail from our governor in VIRGINIA proclaiming April as the official month for Esophageal Cancer.  No matter your state, April is the designated month. 

https://governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/proclamations/

 If anyone else in Virginia wants a copy they can call 804-786-2211 and speak to “Rachael” to get a copy of the Proclamation.  When I spoke with Rachael, she said that in our state, we would have to request one next year as well, because they don’t keep cumulative lists because there are so many things that deserve recognition.

 So no matter the state in which you reside, if you petition your state government, it will be added to the list of months to be honored. I suggest you call your governor’s office and ask what procedure you would need to follow to have your state put on the list.  It may be too late for 2016, but hopefully we will all be around to celebrate the new year of 2017.

  “Spring has sprung” so what better month than April to remember Esophageal Cancer patients and their families.  Feel free to disagree, but I agree with the poet, Joyce Kilmer who wrote the poem about TREES, especially at this wonderful season of the year.  I am so thankful to be alive and see the trees budding, the flowers in bloom, and to be able to “see and hear” the birds chirping and breaking into melodious song. I’m so glad to still be alive and feel the warmth of the sun.

And my husband William, now into his 14th year of survival for EC, and I, 3 years so far with Peritoneal Carcinomatosis/Ovarian Cancer, Stage IV, are so glad that we have “gifted surgeons” who can go inside our bodies and take out some parts that are not working anymore, and then put us back together again.  That reminds me of the "Humpty Dumpty" poem, but unlike Humpty, though oh so many of us have “fallen off the wall”--yet some great surgeons have “put us back together again!"  It’s a great time to “smell the roses”! 

Loretta

  TREES

By Joyce Kilmer

 I think that I shall never see 

A poem as lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed,

Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast; 

 A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

 A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain’

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me,

 But only God can make a tree.