Love Never Leaves: Remembering My Poppop

As someone who is deeply involved with my local Walk to End Alzheimer's, which consistently takes place in early November, October signifies crunch time.

Co-chairing the Walk to End Alzheimer's

This year, I'm the co-chair for that walk. Between thinking up new fundraising ideas to answering questions of participants and consistently checking on our progress in comparison to the top 30 walks in the country — at this point in my life I eat, sleep and breathe the Walk. Even things I would normally do around this time of year are steeped in the Walk: eat out at a restaurant (excellent idea, there is a fundraiser on Tuesday at Texas Roadhouse, let's go then) begin Christmas shopping (there are ongoing fundraisers at Kendra Scott and Tastefully Simple, let's start there) are all about the Walk.

It's trying, I get exhausted. I have to remind myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint and sometimes put an idea on the shelf for a future year. But, the other consistent thing about this time of year is how connected I am to my Poppop.

Fundraising as a child

This isn't my first foray into fundraising. The first was in response to my, at the time, baby boy cousin, Taylor, when he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He was just a little bitty thing that I could carry around on my not-yet-fully-developed hip and my heart ached for what he would have to go through every day of his life with this diagnosis. So, at the ripe young age of 11 or 12, I decided I could do something about it and I found the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation walk.

Although the fiercely independent pre-teen girl would like to think that she did it all by her lonesome, there were some adults who helped with my participation, chief among them was my Poppop. I did a letter-writing campaign to raise funds. I remember writing my first draft on the paper he provided. I remember him taking me to the post office and purchasing my stamps in what would be an annual occurrence for many years. My last JDRF walk was my junior year of high school, where I made it my senior project, in 2006.

2010 Walk to End Alzheimer's

Clearly, I have a personality type because when I went away from my family to go to school at Penn State University, I felt powerless again, this time to the mental decline of my Poppop. So, I did what I knew made me feel better previously and I found the Walk to End Alzheimer's. I didn't have much time between when I found it and when the Walk actually occurred the year of 2010, but my goal was just to get started that year.

I've talked in this previous post about how we geared up and got out there. I am so grateful to have found the walk as I don't feel nearly as powerless against this disease, even years after my Poppop's passing when fighting alongside others like me.

Looking forward to November

As the days prior to Walk tick away and I look at my total fundraising dollars and I look at the total fundraising dollars of the Walk I spend my free time planning, I get very emotional. It's usually around this time that someone will say to me, "Your grandpop would be very proud of you." I agree wholeheartedly that he would.

To the man who celebrated every seemingly insignificant thing that I did while he was in this world, I can imagine that watching me hustle for people like his sister, who is currently struggling with the same disease he did, and all the other grandpops, fathers, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, is an extremely proud moment for which he is clapping and hooting and cheering and telling me, "Good job, Shannon."