| Tweet |
We lost another true community builder over the holidays when Becky Tucker lost an extended battle with pancreatic cancer. In the early days of Bluffton High School, one of the first athletic successes was the Lady Bobcats softball team, and that team had no bigger fan than Becky. Courtney, her daughter, was an all-state pitcher, and Becky was an all-state supporter.
I saw firsthand how her passion for the team inspired folks who would never dream of watching a high school softball game to come out to BHS and see what the Becky-fueled buzz was about. As Courtney went off to college, news soon came of the diagnosis. Even in her darkest days, when the battle could have consumed her, Becky was out at the ball fields as a scorekeeper for the Tides kids’ baseball program.
The town’s communal ecosystem is never the same when you lose someone like Becky Tucker. You can’t replace that zest for life.
So many of you wrote me after the first column, a humbling volume of kind words and “welcome back” wishes. Many of you asked where I went last month and where I’d been the last year.
For once in my life, I haven’t wanted to talk or tell a story.
Up until now, I’ve been selfish with The C Word. I did my part by telling others’ stories of the local heroes fighting the battle against cancer. But when I closed my keyboard, I said, “Well, I’m glad that’s not me,” and never got more involved in the fight.
Now, I am fighting a personal battle with cancer: My mom is on the losing side of the fight after a year’s worth of tireless moxie and hope.
I know my Mom would slap me silly if she knew it, but I just haven’t felt like writing. When I was at my lowest through the years, ready to settle for less than my writing dream, she never let me bail.
The doctors have told us that there’s no more fight here. Hospice is involved. My dad is the hero of the story for how he’s cared for the love of his life. I’m bitter, and most days, I just can’t find the words. I feel like I failed my mom by not solving this senseless puzzle.
She worked so hard, so selfless for so long, and was robbed of the retirement she and my dad deserved.
My sisters and I were ready to sell our kids to pay for a cruise for their 50th anniversary when the news came a year ago. She battled chemo with zero woe-is-me. Just when it seemed she was winning and the cruise would happen, the illness took hold again.
I’ll be back to telling stories next month. I have some rants and rumblings on the Bluffton Parkway extension project that seemingly will never end (DOT folks, you have one more month to get your act together), but I got selfish here.
Pray for Becky and Courtney. Pray for my folks, Barry and Judi. Pray for all those fighting the battle today with fearless grace.
You are all heroes.
Keep fighting, Mom.
