Happy New Year! Make one last donation to help others this year!

I know most of you probably read my post about my husband Dave's best friend, Brent.  Brent passed away 6 years ago from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  He was passionate about raising money to help others with the disease and so we participated & fundraise for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk.  Our local walk is held here in Portland each October.  I typically fundraise for a few months before the walk and then put it out of my mind for another year.  This year, however, I have a special reason for sending out one last fundraising reminder.  An anonymous donor has stepped up and offered to match all donations received by LLS by December 31st, up to $100,000!  I'm very excited about the prospect of such a wonderful organization receiving such a generous gift!  So if there is any way you can donate, in any amount, no matter how large or small, your gift will be doubled this year!

Please take a look at my fundraising page for a bit of Brent's story and to see the last photo of he & Dave.  And click HERE to read the flyer about the anonymous donor's offer.

Thanks so much for taking a few minutes to learn about our friend and the organization he was so passionate about!  Enjoy your family and friends, and take a moment to remember those close you who are no longer with you, this New Year!

Layout of the Week - Memories of Brent

This week I'm sharing a layout I created a couple of years ago. I pulled it out this week to use the photo of Dave & Brent on my fundraising page for the Light the Night Walk. The photo may be the last one taken of Brent before he died. He was fighting to gain his strength after a bone marrow transplant we hoped would cure his non-hodgkins lymphoma. He was coughing a bit on this day and was hospitalized the next day and died, still in the hospital, about 3 weeks later.

It took me a few years to "get it together" enough to create some layouts honoring his memory. Of course I wanted to include this special photo. But I also wanted to include some others from that warm June Seattle day. If you have some photos of a loved one who has died and haven't been able to bring yourself to scrapbook them. Take some time to just look at them and let the feelings come. After you've exhausted that box (or case) of Kleenex, you may be able to remember some of the fun times you shared. I know it takes a while, this layout was created about 4 years after Brent died. But when I started working on it, it just came together. It's amazing to us today, what Delaney looked like at that time and that was how she looked the last time Brent saw her. Putting this layout together helped all of us, Dave & Delaney included, remember Brent as a friend & uncle who was looking ahead at his future with such a brightness in his eyes. This day is such a stark contrast to our last emergency visit to his bedside just hours before he died. By creating this layout, I wanted to replace some of our sad memories with earlier more peaceful ones.

If you are trying to find a way to create a memorial to a loved one, this is just one example. You might want something you can look at everyday. I created a shadow box of photos & memories for Dave after his dad passed away. The box hangs in the hall between Jake & Delaney's bedrooms where we can talk to them about their Grandfather who passed away before they were born, but still loves them so much.

Thinking about creating something like this may be very upsetting. If that is the case, you may want to gather your photos & memorabilia and put them into a box in a safe place until you are ready. Like I said, this could take a long time, but in the end, you will have a wonderful keepsake to help you remember your loved one.

Celebrating and Remembering

I'm so excited to have my 100th follower today! Her name is Erin Bassett. She's got a great blog, creativitE, where she shares all sorts of cool cards & scrapbook pages she's created, along with some beautiful things using ProvoCraft's Yudu Screenprinter. Check out her silver chandelier tank top! Join me & follow Erin on Twitter!

I'm not stopping at 100! If you're looking for some creative inspiration or just enjoy JulieChats, please sign up to be a follower! And THANK YOU to all my current followers! :)

Oh, and it's Friday! And Friday's around here wouldn't be complete without a stop by Ann's blog, Ann Again and Again for her Virtual Girls' Night Out. Join me at the party & meet lot's of other cool bloggers in this great big blog hop! Fridays wouldn't be complete without it!

Now, for the remembering...today is the 6th anniversary of the death of a close friend. In 2003, at the age of 34, Dave's life long best friend, Brent, died of complications following a bone marrow transplant. (The photo is Delaney & Brent on his 34th Birthday.) We had all been so hopeful that the transplant would cure Brent's Non-Hodkins Lymphoma that his death came as a complete shock. All throughout his 3 year battle against cancer, Brent was the most positive person I had ever known. He was strong and sure that he would beat it in the end. He laughed and made us laugh while he shaved his head, receding hairline & all, hoping that maybe he'd have a full head of hair when it grew back after the chemo. He laughed more when he sent me for Taco Bell during a chemo treatment. Being a guy who didn't eat much fast food, he figured, "what could it hurt now?" He laughed that the nurses said he was the only chemo patient they had who GAINED weight!

Personally, I think that was because I made him what we called the chemo cake after his treatments, and I'm pretty sure he ate the whole thing! Makes me want to make one today, in Brent's memory. It's really called an Earthquake Cake, German Chocolate type "frosting" on the bottom of a chocolate cake filled with big chunks of cream cheesey goodness! I'll find the recipe & post it soon!

Now, looking back, I think that Brent laughed with us about his cancer because he was comfortable enough with us to laugh about it, but also because he knew that's what we needed. It had been a tough couple of years for us with many deaths in among our family and friends. Dave's dad had passed away less than a year before Brent's diagnosis. And Brent's dad passed away not too long into his treatment. We all needed to find things to laugh about or we might never stop crying. It wasn't until Brent's funeral that a friend of ours (an unmarried guy, like Brent) said in his eulogy something Brent had told him just after he was diagnosed. Brent told him that he was glad that he was the one among all our friends who had cancer. He was thankful that all these guys, who counted him among their very best friends, would not have to worry about leaving their kids without dads or their wives without husbands. Of course this made me cry more, even though I didn't think that was possible. I'm so thankful that Brent had so many wonderful friends who he could share all the complicated thoughts that someone with cancer must have during all the stages of their illness.

I cry a lot, thinking back about all of this...about how only the pictures remind Delaney of her Godfather, who passed away when she was 2 1/2...about how she learned about death at such a young age...about how Dave must miss his best friend, the best man at our wedding, Delaney's Godfather, Jake's namesake. And how Brent would have loved Jakob Brent, in all his screaming, dancing, Terry Bradshaw look-alike glory.

Brent definitely would have had a big laugh at his little guy! I know he's looking down on us smiling! And right now, he's telling me, "Hey Jules, go throw away that pile of Kleenexes & get out there and enjoy the great Oregon summer day with those beautiful kids!" ...or something like that! :)

Please check out my fundraising page on the Lukemia & Lymphoma Society webpage. The LLS was one of Brent's favorite charities. He got us involved doing the Light the Night Walk when Delaney was only 18 months old. It's a great event, everyone walking in cities all over the country with red glowing balloons. The cancer survivors carry white glowing balloons, which bob up & down among a sea of red balloons, surrounding them with all the people who love & support them. Donate to the charity on my page or sign up for the Light the Night Walk in your area & do some fundraising of your own!

I know this post has been a pretty sad one, but I hope helping someone with cancer will make you feel much better & hopeful today! You might find some of this post on my page, along with a photo of Brent. Enjoy your weekend & take a moment to think about how someone with cancer has touched your life!