Pink for Rose

Hello Reader,
You’ve stayed with me this far. That is amazing. I’m glad you’re walking on this journey with me. It feels good to have a friend to walk with.

I’m sure you saw the bouquet of flowers. You must be thinking, wow! Rosie has a secret admirer. Well, actually, you’re wrong but not too far off. Rosie has several secret admirers. Even though I wouldn’t quite call them a secret!

Remember when I told you about Christian in an earlier post? Well, it turns out, he’s a man of many talents! He happens to be a soccer coach for a range of children ages eight through seventeen. He doesn’t coach them all at once! That would be a lot! Each season, he has a team or two that he coaches. The youngest age group he has ever coached is eight, and the highest is seventeen.

Sometimes I go to the games to watch the kids or cheer them on. Other times, I stay at home and let him do his thing on the job. Turns out, his team had a big surprise for me.

They asked me to attend one of the games and having started chemo, I didn’t feel like it. I wanted to stay home and sleep lol! As a matter of fact, after much persuasion, I got in the car, and when we got to the soccer field, I wanted to stay in the car and sleep!

Don’t mess with my sleep!!!
Anyway, after much coercion from him this time with tales of how the sun was bright, and I needed some air and I would feel better sitting outside, and a change of environment was good, I got out of the car. Ok Christian! Enough! I get it. I’ll come out to the soccer field!!! Geez!

I start walking towards where he is coaching his team today. I take a turn on to the right and guess who I see? A bunch of young boys wearing pink socks and shouting,

“Surprise Rosie!”

Wow! What is going on? The boys all rush towards me with envelopes containing cards that they drew and prayers to get well soon. They gave me huge hugs while their parents just clapped for me on the sidelines. They all came out and shook my hands. I was so overwhelmed with gratitude! Apparently, my cousin had told his team that his cousin was fighting breast cancer and the kids wanted to do something special for me. Being athletes and soccer players at that, they wore pink socks for me. The pink was significant because it is the color for breast cancer. This was not part of their uniform. They had gone out of their way to get the socks to let me know they stood with me!

What a sweet gesture! I can’t even tell you how much I appreciated it. This was a tournament they were participating in and professional pictures are usually taken of each team in these tournaments. Theirs was taken before the game and I was invited to stand with the boys. We were also able to catch some fun pictures with our phones after the game. That’s me in grey sweatpants, the coach in black and the boys in pink!

We were trying to jump up in the air, which was an epic fail, but we were so happy to be together.

By the way, on this day, the team won! The boys played really well too! The parents thought it might have something to do with me being there, and they were probably right. After the boys won, they came up to me and asked if I would also attend their next tournament game that same day in the evening. However, due to a prior engagement, I was not able to make it.

Before I go, I would like to talk about someone pretty darn awesome. His name is Tim. We call him Coach Tim. He is the other coach who works with my cousin Christian to get the boys in tip-top shape for all the games they win, and all the parents they make proud. Tim is also a man of many talents because when he isn’t coaching, he’s busy saving lives as a physician in one of the hospitals here in North Carolina. Tim is an Anesthesiologist. As luck would have it, Christian told him about my story. Now, Christian wasn’t telling Tim because he knew Tim was an Anesthesiologist. Yes, he knew Tim was a doctor, but he didn’t even know his specialty. The only reason it came up in conversation was that this was the day after I got diagnosed, and Christian was clearly still upset.  So Tim asked Christian at soccer practice why he was feeling so blue. Christian confided in him. Coincidentally, Tim mentions that he works alongside a great surgeon who performs the types of surgery I need for my cancer treatment. Today, that same surgeon is the one scheduled to perform my mastectomy in the later phase of my cancer treatment so that my healing can progress. Tim mentions me to the surgeon, and the deal is closed. Done. That simple!

Tell me people, what are the odds? Is this not God? Surely the devil cannot orchestrate a meeting so beautiful!  Sometimes in life, we say things happened by chance, but God is clearly behind the scenes orchestrating all the encounters we need for our life to play out beautifully on the center stage and for us to get that standing ovation we all deserve as God’s children. Thank you Tim. Clearly you and your family will always have a special place in the hearts of mine. Thank you and Christian for encouraging the boys to support me by wearing their pink socks.

Thank you 09 NC Fusion East Silver Boys! You played well and you won and you guys are awesome! I wish nothing but many more trophies for you, and for a look of pride from your coaches Christian and Tim each time they talk about you. Thank you for wearing Pink for Rose. Thank you for wearing pink for me! Thank you to all the parents that day who gave me huge hugs and encouraged me. That was a major gesture! I am so grateful!

With all this talk about hair loss, it’s finally good to talk about something uplifting!

However, this good feeling didn’t last too long. Here’s what happened next…

Not sure at what point of my journey you’re on? Be sure to check out The Contents Page.