Barb’s Rememberance of Coleen
I met Coleen last September 2012 at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. I was having my 20th bone scan. She was having her 1st. You have to wait three hours from the time of injection to the actual time of the bone scan. So we both had some time on our hands. Coleen approached me, of course. I had a mountain of reading material with me which I carried in my handy green canvas bag with the quote, “It’s not the food in your life,it’s the Life in your food.” I took this bag with me every time I went to Roswell, every month for the past two and a half years. Every time I went by the coffee shop in the lobby with the trays of donuts in the case, I’d get mad every time. Here in a cancer hospital,the first thing you see when you walk in the lobby is junk food. You can’t even get a cup of herbal tea there. So I’d bring my bag in silent protest hoping someone would ask me about it. Coleen was the only one who ever asked me about my bag. So we started talking about food. Now here is someone who really appreciates good food and sharing good food with family and friends. One thing led to the next and we found we had the same love for yoga and the Adirondacks. Eventually we put our sneakers on and went for a walk on a glorious September morning. I loved Coleen from day one. She gave me her phone number and I suggested she come to a support group for metastatic breast cancer survivors. Coleen was so warm and friendly, open and caring.Coleen came to the support group and she transformed our group. She suggested a picnic, Reiki, doing yoga and meditation together. Our group was infused with energy,hope and spirituality. Coleen organized a contingent of us to go to Rochester for the Breast Cancer Coalitions Metastatic Education Day. Of course, she drove us all in her car. And she also gave me the most wonderful gift. She arranged for me to be a speaker, as a survivor, at the Education Day. I was nervous, but I felt compelled to do this and it was a wonderful experience for me. I felt like I had deeply connected with the audience and hopefully helped a few more women to live their lives fearlessly and to feel the power to heal themselves body, mind and spirit. From this opportunity I was asked to do two more speaking engagements and to be on TV with Buffalo Reiki. Thank you Coleen, you have made my life richer and more fulfilling.
But that’s not all. Coleen introduced me to Rebecca at Buffalo Reiki. I had never before experienced the healing effects of Reiki. I now go monthly and my son, Jack also goes too. It’s hard to describe how Reiki has changed, I guess I have to say transformed me and my family. And it was a simple encouragement from Coleen. She has impacted my life so deeply. Is it possible that I only knew her for one short year? I remember our hike together at Chestnut Ridge Park on a hot summer morning. I remember having lunch at her daughter Lindsay’s house and playing with her precious and sweet granddaughters, Samantha and Claire. I can see clearly Coleen’s smile and twinkling eyes and hear her lovely laugh. The girls delighted her. I could tell by her grand mothering ways that she must have been an amazing mom.
So I have to pause and consider, if this woman, Coleen could profoundly impact my life in one short year, it’s hard to imagine or comprehend the impact she must have had on her family, friends, clients and colleagues in the 53 years of life that she shared with so many.
I love you and miss you, Coleen. You are here in my heart. And as the song says, “You are here in my heart, and the heart will go on and on.”
Barb’s bag from Hippocrates Institute with the food quote that pulled Coleen and her together