On Mother’s Day I received quite a few messages from people saying they were thinking of me.  In a text message someone wrote “I know how difficult this day can be”.  It’s true, Mother’s Day and many holidays can bring thoughts of my daughter.   Many of you know that my only child, Queah passed away in 2011 from colon cancer. I have written blog entries about it many times. I’m still very much a grieving mother.  But it’s not always the holidays that get me down — it’s the other days.

Case and point – today, I was driving to work with the radio on.  Some words from a song triggered a memory of Queah.  I tried to fight the feeling that was was coming over me but I couldn’t.  I started having vivid thoughts of her.  I  remembered some of the things she said to me right before she died.   I also began to remember how she struggled physically and how painful her battle was.  The next thing I knew my eyes was filled with tears and there I was once again — crying  — in my car going 70 miles an hour on the freeway headed to work. So it’s not the holiday — it’s any given day.   On this particular day the sorrow felt a little more intense.

Perhaps one of the things that made me think of her is that I’m really busy these days organizing our next Donna Terrell’s Yoga Warriors Fighting ColonCancer event.  This is our 7th annual, and our first event since Covid-19 canceled our plans last year.  The organization, affectionally called Yoga Warriors, was created after Queah died.  My daughter enjoyed the benefits of yoga when she was battling cancer.  It made her feel better when she was suffering from the disease and the cancer treatments.  Yoga Warriors also works to share the knowledge of how this disease affects more young people that in the past.   We raise money to provide yoga for cancer survivors and caregivers and other support they may need like housing when they’re in town going through treatment at area hospitals.  Last year we gave the Baptist Health Foundation a$48,000 grant to purchase the Erbe Jet 2 — the first one in Arkansas — that removes cancer in the colon through hydrosurgery, cutting surgical time in half and aiding in the healing process.  It’s a device that could have been a game changer for my daughter.

Most importantly, Yoga Warriors hopes to help people catch cancer early though awareness.  If Queah’s cancer had been caught early she might still be here with us.  And I hope fewer people will go through the sorrow that I have felt.  I wish that on no one.

Our community-wide free event is Saturday, June 19, 2021 at MacArthur Park Pavilion from 10am to 11:30am.  We’re outdoors this year for safety reasons. The eventis free but we’ll be selling yoga mats, yoga accessories, raffles tickets and taking donations at the event.  There will also be door prizes.  We hope you can join us.  You can learn more about us and donate at http://www.yogawarriors.org.