Stamp, Scrap, CURE!

This is my mother, Elaine Gartner. This picture was taken in 2001, in the midst of my mother's chemo treatments.

Diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer in August 2000, my mother fought hard against this ruthless disease.

She had her ups and downs during her treatment. At one point during her treatments, she was well enough

to return to work and her hair grew back. Sadly though, the cancer reared it's ugly head again and she lost the fight

on February 11, 2003, while I was pregnant with her first grandchild.

 

But that doesn't really explain who my mother was. My mother was an amazing woman. She was funny,

unpredictable, giving, caring, extremely generous, creative, and smart. She dedicated her

life to her three daughters. She and my father celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary with a trip to Ireland

just before she was diagnosed. She was an incredible high school teacher. How she tolerated high school students

for so many years always amazed me. Dozens of former students attended her funeral, most of those had been out

of school for a decade or more. All shared amazing stories of her wacky classroom antics, her willingness to

help them when they had no one else to turn to, or her ability to motivate them.

Computers and technology fascinated her, yet she was artistic and creative as you can be.

She snuck in time in the early mornings (sometimes waking at 3 or 4 AM) to earn not one, but 2

Masters degrees. She volunteered for the town zoning board and was very active in the school community.

 

A few years ago, I came across a box of her things that I had never seen before. Inside were scrapbooks

that she kept of her life. One from when she and my father first began dating. I had never seen them

before and she never spoke of them. I had been scrapping for nearly a decade when I found them

and of course, immediately burst into tears.

 

She's my constant motivation for this event, my endless inspiration.

Love you mom!