Day #15 - A First Great Meeting!
After spending 5 wonderful days in New York It was time to
go. Time to venture out back on the road to meet more awesome patients and hear
even more wonderful stories. First stop on our route would be visiting another
area of New York that I grew up in – Elmhurst Queens. I have fond memories of
some wonderful moments there, when I was 10 years old, around the same time my
brother was born. I had a few best friends that lived in the area. Lilly and
Lisa were on my street, Patricia lived down the street and Sylvia lived a
little further into town. Lisa, Lilly and I would walk down the street to a
small alley way between the houses and the gardens behind them to the end of
the street where there was a cherry tree and grape vines behind a fence. One of
the branches of the cherry tree extended over the other side of the fence and
we would play there and swing on the branch and pick the cherries and grapes
all day. I spent a lot of time in their homes and walking around town, stopping
by the corner liquor and recycling center and grabbing a pop. We’d walk to the
local pizza joint for pizza and Italian ices. Those were the days.
So Doryn and I drove out of Manhattan and into Queens. It was
wonderful seeing where I grew up and showing those areas to Doryn. I haven’t
been there since I was 10 or so, which was over 25 years ago! We drove past the
old pizza place that’s still there and to the White Castle we frequented as
kids. Ohh the memories.
So after our little drive through Queens, we were headed to
New Jersey to meet one of our clients and his wife. We were lucky enough to
have them host us at their home. We got to NJ a little early and stopped by
Barnes and Noble to just relax for a bit. Next we went and got an oil change
for my car – we had driven over 3,000 miles and it was perfect timing!
When Theresa texted me that she was home, we headed over. The
moment I saw her face to face and met her it was like we were instantaneously
best friends, as if we had know one another for years. We all went up to her
apartment and talked. Her husband Nick, the Cancer survivor of stage 4 non
hogkins lymphoma was there as well. It was so wonderful to put a face to the
voices and the names.
We made a plan to go to dinner in a few hours, with my cousin
Kirk, 2nd cousin McKayla and Kirk’s fiancé Jill. I hadn’t seen Kirk
in who knows how long and Theresa actually knew Kirk’s daughter – McKayla –
talk about a small world!! We all enjoyed a dinner out, talking and laughing up
a storm!
After dinner, Theresa, Nick, Doryn and I headed over to
Walmart to pick up some things they needed, which included an adventure looking
for ice trays. We always find ways to have fun no matter what we’re doing. It was
indeed a great night.
By the time we got back to their house we had a lot to
prepare for since we were no longer going to West Virginia and the Gesundheit
institute due to the storms and flooding. We had to find a middle point to stay
between New Jersey and Irvington, KY, luckily after about an hour we found it
and booked a hotel in Lexington, VA.
After
that we headed to bed.
It was such a wonderful day, mainly because we had
finally met face to face, a family we helped over 2 years ago through UCAAN and
our Personal Fundraising Program.
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