what's in you wednesday

This past weekend, we had our fourth Pink Lemonade Project stand in the beautiful La Jolla Cove. The day was truly, truly gorgeous. Even though there was a slight marine layer that was hovering over the water - and a fog bank rolled in just after noon, the day was spectacular.

(Unfortunately, I lack the ability to post pictures, so those will have to wait until I return home from my business trip, this weekend.)

For those adults that manned the lemonade stand, we spent much of the day alternating between chasing after children and collecting donations for our 3-Day Breast Cancer walk. At one point, a man in his 50's walked up to our table and once he heard our spiel about five mothers of triplets walking sixty miles in three days for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, in a voice not much more than a whisper he said, "I lost my wife five months ago."

My friends Jessica and Debbie were standing next to me at the table and all of us gasped our condolences when he shared this information. We heaped upon him handfuls of chocolate chip cookies, silicone bracelets and lemonade. And then we fell in to a respectful if not awkward silence, while he pointed to two men who were with him and added, "These are my two brothers. We live in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania but we are visiting San Diego because my wife always wanted to come here." Then he said with a sad smile, "I'm finishing up her bucket list."

We collected his generous donation and he walked away. But after standing near the sea wall for a few minutes, he came back and said, "She was diagnosed four years ago. It went away for a while, but then it came back last year. It hit her so hard. There was nothing any one could do. But she never gave up trying."

His wife's name is Lorraine. She was 53-years old when she died this past May from complications resulting from breast cancer. I told him that I would remember Lorraine during my walk. And I will. Just like I will keep doing something, anything, until we can find a cure.

Oh, that is such a lofty goal and I feel like such a head-in-the-clouds idiot for typing that out.

But I'll tell you - it really feels better doing something than nothing. And it feels pretty awesome that in less than two months, our walking team has raised over $11,000.00 for breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment.

During my recent trip back to South Carolina, I talked with my cousins late in to the night, about getting the whole family together for a reunion. We discussed where and when the reunion would be, and the possibility of completing a 3-Day walk (or something similar) as a precursor. Whether or not something like this will happen, remains to be seen, but it is definitely on the drawing board.

But this got me thinking. Why don't we organize an event like that?

I get so many e-mails from people who tell me that they wish they lived closer so that they could join me or participate in an event. And well, why the heck not? There are races and walks all over the country. And seeing as I love to travel, I'd be willing to go just about anywhere.

So where would you go - and what would you do?

Could you walk 60 miles in 3 days?

And if so - where would you do it?