Crazy 8's for a Cure

Each year (for the past several), my mother sends out about 200 letters (she has no email) to family and friends asking for our support in her cancer walk. The combined Luck-Frederic American Cancer Society event always falls on the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. Most of my siblings  – closer to her geographically – have joined her for some or all of the years. For some reason, we've always had something going on, so I'd send my check and wish her well.

This year, my calendar was clear (enough) so we made it up there. I didn't tell Mom ahead of time because I wasn't sure we could swing it. Especially after this week's unexpected activities. On Friday, we actually went from the funeral lunch up to Marathon for the baseball game and, after Coach Austin was done, we drove over to Luck. The walk was this morning in Frederic, just a short jaunt up the road from Luck.

Mom was surprised! And it made me feel good, too! When my siblings all got there, she smiled and said, "Oh my! All my kids are here! I bet no one else can say that!" She was tickled alright.

So here we are, or I should say here we R – the 8 R's from left: Rachel, Rayna, me, Romey, Raylene, Renell, Ron and RoAnn.

And the whole team of supporters including sons-in-law and a grandson (and his plus 2).

Although none of us in our immediate family has been diagnosed with cancer (yet), Mom started doing this in memory of her dad and her sister.

I also purchased a tribute flag in honor of our good friend Cindy who has battled breast cancer for the past year and, knock on wood, has beat it.

My 87-year-old mom didn't walk the full route. Don't blame her. I know my hubby did and my sister Rachel, too, but the rest of us took too much time chit-chatting and walking slowly. We were looking at the map for a shortcut or to see how far behind we were. Ha.

Here RoAnn, Rayna and Raylene run up a hill – or do a convincing job "looking" like they're running up a hill.

I didn't do any running but I did have a ride in an ambulance!

Kidding. Nothing serious. My cousin Lonna was on duty (small town) and I got so busy visiting with her that I fell a few blocks behind the rest. So they gave me a lift (plus one siren blow) to catch up. Not my first ambulance ride, but definitely the shortest, least painful and least expensive!

When we got back to the school/starting point, we learned that a total of $43,630.64 was raised for today's event. Wow. My mom has pretty much always been in the top 10 individual fundraisers. This year she was in the No. 2 spot with $4,457 raised! Double wow. Isn't she amazing?

She may be proud to have her crazy 8 kids there, but we are all so very proud of her!

Happy Mother's Day to all of us.