As long as I’ve known Lauren, she had a little tile with the phrase “She believed she could so she did” on it. When she lived at Lindsay’s house, it was in her window next to the bed, so she could see it every morning. When we moved into our place together, we tried to put it in our window, but we didn’t have the right type of blinds. (Side note, Lauren HATES vertical blinds. We were going to change all of the blinds in our house because of this, but decided it wasn’t worth the cost in the end. And now you know) We ended up putting it on her nightstand, so she could still see it, as long as our room was clean.
She lived her life to that saying. When the doctors told her there was no way she would be able to keep the baby while fighting cancer originally, she turned to that saying. She believed she could, so she did.
When the doctor told her in February that she only had a week or two left to live, she refused to believe that. She believed she could fight and last longer, so she did.
I am so thankful for everything Lauren has given me and this world. She is (yes is) a wonderful person, a happy spirit, a caring individual, and the love of my life. I miss her so much. I can feel her everywhere though, which is awesome.
Please do me a favor. Go to the doctor. Get a checkup. Men, women, doesn’t matter. Just go. Go to all of the recommended appointments. I don’t care if you hate doctors, if you’re scared of doctors, just go. Hopefully they’ll just send you home with a clean bill of health. And when they do, make an appointment for next year. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
This past weekend a group of Lauren’s friends went on a previously planned Girls Trip to Austin, TX. Before Lauren got sick again, she was going to go with them. Before they left, they told me about how they were going to do some sort of balloon tribute to Lauren while they were there. So after a few drinks, I decided that I was going to join them, so I used my last remaining flight vouchers and met them in Texas.
We did the tribute at one of my favorite spots in Austin, on a cliff overlooking the Colorado River. When Lauren and I were planning our many trips we were going to take in our lifetime together, this was one of the spots. As her friends said after hiking up to the spot “Lauren would have hated that hike, but she would have been blown away at the top.”
We all wrote a message to Lauren on a (biodegradable) balloon, did a champagne toast in her honor, then sent the balloons off to meet her. Below is a short video showing the release…I imagine a fancy video will be put out by one of her friends shortly.
I love her, and I miss her. Here’s a picture of her getting ready for our wedding, 3/20/2016. One of my favorite pictures of her.
I’m going to do my best to keep my Facebook “happy”, and will post my emotional stuff in blog form here. That way you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to 🙂
When I lay awake at night, thinking about Lauren, life, and the fact that even though the tv is on how quiet it is, this song plays in my head. Every night. It does alternate between this version and the Simon & Garfunkel version, so there’s that.
As many of you know, my beautiful wife Lauren passed away after a serious battle against cancer. She had been out of work since December, and I had been home taking care of her. She passed away without life insurance, so all of the funeral costs were out of pocket. We have been blown away by the outpouring of support of donations and love. Thank you all so much. If you have a chance, please visit our GoFundMe fundraiser (https://www.gofundme.com/knmv7f7q) and give it a share. Any funds that we raise over the cost of the funeral and bills received during Lauren’s treatment will be put in a college fund for our son Evan. Thank you all again.
Our Tale 