Gang of Three

I have an amazingly supportive family, which is wonderful and so important. From my husband and parents and in-laws to aunts and uncles and cousins, I am blessed with a fierce tribe. I also have many amazing friends who have my back. Among those are three of my oldest and dearest friends who have always been there for me, but have truly stepped up in amazing ways. These are my people. My gang of three. Alana, Diane, and Cheryl.

They bring me to hours-long doctor’s appointments, they participate in every fundraising event they can, they ask what they can do and they just do it. They do things subtly, without drawing the attention they know I hate, like opening up my water bottle or cutting my chicken before I even ask. They are in this with me.

Mostly what they do is just make everything normal. And they make me laugh. For my birthday a few weeks ago, my Lana (I’ve called her that since forever) gave me the picture at the top of this page. I loved it immediately. It’s represents the “strength” tattoo that my cousins and my aunt and I all got last summer. And the shells, well, she calls me Shells, so that’s pretty obvious. I told her I loved the picture and she said she was glad because it was permanent, as she lifted her pant leg to reveal the tattoo she’d gotten the week before. The picture in the frame was the stencil of the tattoo. She made it permanent. As she always says to me: she’s in it 100%.