GFF “Operation Choose Joy”

This is what courage looks like:

Robyn Willson says she’ll always remember her mother’s cancer treatments as “something that we enjoyed.” That’s because she and her mother decided to make chemotherapy fun.

After learning that her mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Robyn decided that the two of them would dress up in different costumes each time Carla had to go in for a chemotherapy treatment.

Carla passed away May 29– and she was in costume.

Robyn says she knew cancer would take her mother one day, but it will never take the laugh-filled memories they made every time they played dress up.

 Memento Mori!

Since cancer is such a cheery topic I'll do one more from the great frozen Cannuckistan. 

Car Mechanics Made Sure We Could Always Get Our Daughter To Hospital

I believe most parents of kids with cancer would agree that there are an infinite number of stresses in this life of childhood cancer. Yet there were so many strangers that came into our lives who seemed to understand what we were going through.

Having lost our jobs, living on the generosity of others is scary. We didn’t live in the city so anytime our vehicle made an odd noise or we knew it needed repairs, I felt sick. The first time we took our van in to get fixed after her diagnosis, I chewed on my finger nails knowing how little money we had, yet having a way to get her to the hospital was paramount.

So there I stood in front of the counter waiting to hear the total “damage” – I knew it would be over a thousand dollars.

But Dave handed me the keys and when I asked how much it was, he said not to worry about it– they looked after it.

That's pretty much the whole story.  Dave and Chris from Ballymote Auto in Ballymote, Ontario keep that old junker running, free of charge.  That means every time the car made an odd noise or something was amiss they just fixed it for free.  They donated their time and the cost of the parts and the lost opportunity cost from not working on paying customers cars just because a sick kid needed to be able to get to the hospital.