Celebrating Cindy

Today would have been Cindy’s 54th Birthday.  If she were alive today she’d be about  3 weeks away from welcoming her first grandbaby, Jack, into the world!  And about 4 months away from the birth of her second grandbaby, Cindy!

Cynthia (l) and Julie (r) at a baby shower for Jack!

I remember having a conversation with Julie awhile back about how her mom probably got to hold her grandbabies up in heaven before they were ever in existence.  And I know that Cindy is looking down upon Julie & Cynthia with a full heart.  Those two are going to be fabulous mothers and even though Cindy is not physically with them on earth I know that she is a part of every moment of their every day.  Baby Jack & Baby Cindy have a wonderful heavenly grandmom, and I know their moms will make sure they know who Cindy was.

Teal and I are raising money for breast cancer in honor of Cindy.  We will be running the Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon in San Antonio, Texas on November 13, 2011 wearing our Team Cindy shirts.  It is a big honor to us to be able to wear these shirts in memory of such a great woman! Today we are not quite at 50% of our goal and our deadline is rapidly approaching.  We would appreciate any and all support that you can offer us!

Giving up a drink at Starbucks and donate $5.

Giving up a workday lunch out and donate $10.

Thanks for reading a little bit about Cindy today – if you’d like to donate to Team Cindy please go here!  And if you’d like to read a little bit more about her life and family you can find that here! We’ll leave you with a picture of Cynthia and her husband Mike at the Tulsa Komen Race for the Cure for this past weekend sporting their Team Cindy shirts.

Team Cindy

It is such a honor to me to even be writing this blog – a few weeks ago I got a text from one of my college roommates saying “We are ordering more Team Cindy shirts, do you want one?” I responded immediately with “YES!!”

If we back up a little bit, I met Julie (college roomie) in 2003 and within 9-ish months of our meeting we became roommates.  Right around the time I met Julie her mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  I know the news had to come as a shock and heart break to Julie, her sister, Cynthia, and their dad.  And in the times I first met Cindy and when she would come down to College Station for a visit, I’d never thought she was anything but a healthy lady with a contagious joy for life and her family.

 
Cindy was one of those moms of your friends that you immediately fell in love with and always enjoyed having the opportunity to be around and in truth she has passed that along to her daughters, as well as marrying a man that contains the same quality.

 
The very last time I was around Cindy was in roughly July of 2009 – I had gotten together with Julie, her husband, Cynthia, her boyfriend (and future husband) and another couple for a low-key dinner at Julie’s house.  After dinner we decided to play cranium so Cindy came over to hangout and give us an even number for teams.  She just fit right in and never seemed like a mom who had 20 years on us.  I could always see how Cindy’s daughters were her passion and so important to her.  She loved and adored Julie & Cynthia and never in an overbearing way – I always viewed her as a close to perfect balance of being a mom and a friend to her daughters.

Julie, Cindy & Cynthia

One of the things I loved hearing about Cindy, prior to my meeting her, was she had been an elementary school teacher for years, and I believe before every school year the kids who would find out Mrs. Death was their teacher would come up with these stories of how scary she must be!  How silly they must have felt upon meeting her that first day of school and realizing there is absolutely nothing scary about Cindy Death.

 
In the early months of 2010, Cindy began to experience organ failure as a result of all the chemo she had received.  Many nights were spent in the hospital with Cindy surrounded by her loving family.  Cynthia was scheduled to be married in early May, but it started to look like Cindy would not be able to be there unless the wedding was moved up.  Everything actually fell into place and Cynthia’s wedding was moved up by a little over a month.  But there was yet another hiccup in the plans for Cynthia & Mike’s wedding and having Cindy be there – she would not be able to leave the hospital.  The last Friday of February the wedding was brought to the hospital so that Cindy could see her baby girl get married. 

Julie, Cindy & CynthiaThe entire Death Family & their spouses - Jimmy, Mike, Cynthia, Julie, Jeff and Cindy

The pictures above were taken by a very talented photograph here in DFW, Love Me Photography,  you can see her blog here as well as a slideshow of all the photographs she took at Cynthia & Mike’s wedding.  Just six days after this wedding, Cindy went on to heaven.  Or as I have heard Julie say “heaven just got another angel!”
 
 
Cindy Death, was a beautiful woman, a daughter, sister, wife, mother, teacher and friend to many, as well as being adored by many.  That is why I am so honored to be running a race and running for Team Cindy/Life is a Run.  Teal will be running with me in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half in San Antonio in November and we have set a goal to raise $1,200.00 for Susan G. Komen ($100 for each month of this ruinning year).  As of today we have $90 towards our goal!  If you would like to donate to Team Cindy please go here.
 
 
If you plan on running Rock ‘n’ Roll SA look for me in my Team Cindy shirt:
 
 
– Beth