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August 2008
A most memorable walk!!
Each year this adventure is more and more amazing. My first walk this
year was the Avon walk in San Francisco. At 66, I wanted to challenge
myself ,so I signed up to walk the NYC Avon walk too. After signing
up, I learned that The 3 Day was going to be in San Francisco this year.
I figured that at my age I better do it now or I may not be able, so
I signed up for this also.
The first day of the Avon Walk in San Francisco, I walked several miles
with Barbara Jo. She is a ‘multi-city walker’, meaning that she does
more than one breast cancer walk around the country. I asked her how
many she was walking this year, she said 15! Ouch! She then told me
she was 70 and that she planned to walk every step of every mile of
the 15 breast cancer walks this year. I wanted to change the subject.
It turns out that she has raised over $1,000,000 without corporate sponsors
and by September of this year she will have walked every step of 100
breast cancer walks, somewhere around 5000 miles. What an inspiration!
This is our 6th year and our team raised over $20,000 again. I want
to thank each one of you that made my participation in this event possible.
I hope that you feel as though you were part of the accomplishments
by your contributions. This year we walked past San Francisco General
Hospital Avon Breast Cancer Center. Money raised for Avon walks in years
past built it, and each year Avon contributes to its operation and provides
services for women in San Francisco.
On Saturday we were to walk 26 miles. We left Golden Gate Park at 7AM;
we walked over the Golden Gate Bridge to Mill Valley and back over the
bridge. It is now approaching 4PM and I have just passed the center
point of the bridge, one mile to go. I can see our tents in Crissy field.
It is all downhill from here. I look ahead and see two women in pink,
they seem very troubled, one is on the phone, as I walk up with my team
mate Sunny, I see a bag on the deck of the bridge. I think, ‘I bet they
think it is a bomb, hmmm, maybe it is?’ I get closer and I notice that
a young fellow has climbed over the railing and is standing about 3
feet below us facing the water, looking to jump.
As I walk up I notice that he is wearing two t-shirts. I reach through
the railing and with a firm grip on those shirts, pull his back against
the railing. He looks up over his shoulder at me; I signal that I want
him to climb back over. My grip is firm enough that he can’t break free.
He acknowledges and begins to climb back over. He looked pale and dazed.
Sunny helps bring him back over the railing, and we double team him,
his arm around ours. Sunny was great, she talked with him, asked his
name, ‘Ted’, asked how old was he, ‘21’, and where was he from, ‘Tracy’.
She told of her cousin that took his life this year. I told him that
20 years ago I wanted to commit suicide. (Actually it was 21 years ago.
I wonder if it wasn’t just about the time he was born.) I told him how
I felt and what it was like for me, how glad I am that I didn’t die,
and now I am here for him. I had this overwhelming feeling of how fortunate
I was to have had this opportunity.
I want to thank all of you that contributed, if you hadn’t participated
in your way, I would have missed out on this opportunity. Obviously,
I will be walking again next year and looking for your continued support.
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