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Dude

Happy Holidays From Dude and the Girls

by Secondhand Karl on December 21, 2009

in Cam, Dude, It Is What It Is, Kidz, Teenie

Lisa has been on my mind a lot of late, and I know the same is true for many of you.

Just received this from John (Dude) this morning. -Karl

Hello Everybody and Happy Holidays,

Just wanted to give everyone a short Holiday update. This has been the toughest year of my life. The holidays make it even harder, but I have no doubt in my mind that Lisa is by my side. She’s helping me through the difficult times, and smiling and enjoying the good ones alongside me, too.

With the help of family and friends, we’ve managed to somehow keep our heads up and smiles on our faces. The girls keep me busy and I’m going to make sure they have as good a Christmas as I can possibly give them.

We’ve had quite the year. Cameron and Christine both had their 1st Communions in May. It was extremely hard for me, but something that Lisa wanted. She WAS there in spirit and I could feel her right by my side.

1st Communion

When we got in the car to leave, one of Lisa’s favorite songs (The Stones – You Can’t Always Get What You Want) started playing on the radio, beginning at the very first note. That brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. This has occurred several other times when I was really feeling down. It’s like she’s saying, “Everything is going to be OK, I’m here with you.”

Christine Chillin' on the Beach

Thanks to Lisa’s good friend Christine, we managed to have a few days’ vacation at Ocean City, New Jersey. It’s something that we really needed at the time, and I cannot begin to thank her enough for thinking of us. We spent a couple days on the beach, and walked the boardwalk at night and had a great time.

Cameron on the Beach

More good times thanks to Lisa’s Dad…we went to a Phillie’s game in August. We not only got to see a great game, but – thanks to one of his good friends who works for the Phillies organization – we got to go upstairs to the executive offices and see the World Series trophies from 1980 and 2008! That was one of many days this year that I will never forget.

Phillies 2008 World Series Trophy

Another thing that has kept us busy is our Taekwondo classes. It gives us all a great outlet for relieving our stress and anxiety. Cameron received her Black Belt in September and I just got mine last week, just in time for Christmas.

Cameron Testing for Her Black Belt

My Black Belt

Cameron and I have also made the decision to continue to work towards our 2nd Degree Master’s Belts.

Christine is now working on her Red Belt and is assisting in teaching the youth classes, too. She continues to get straight A’s, and was recently invited to the Young Scholars of America class this summer.

Christine - Halloween

Cameron is doing great in school, too. You can only imagine how proud I am of them. I know Lisa is, too.

Thanks again to everyone that has helped us out through this past year, whether it be through all of your generous donations, by cooking us a few meals, taking the girls on day outings with their friends, or just by listening when I needed someone to talk to. With the support of family and friends, we will continue to grow stronger, day by day, week by week, and month by month.

Happy Holidays,

The Kellys

Summer Vacation Ocean City

My Black Belt

Tagged as: beach, black belt, Cam, Cameron, Christine, Christmas, Church, Clusterfook, communion, Dad, Dude, First Communion, happy, Happy Holidays, John, Lisa, martial arts, Phillies, red belt, Rolling Stones, taekwondo, Teenie, Teeny, update, World Series, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Young Scholars of America

{ 40 comments }

Update from Dude

by Secondhand Karl on July 10, 2009

in Cam, Cancer Sucks, Dude, It Is What It Is, Teenie

I still think about Lisa every day, much like a lot of you, I’m sure. Just yesterday, I got a friend recommendation from Facebook, based on some mutual friends that Lisa and I share. It’s kind of an odd sensation seeing Lisa pop up on Facebook, like sad and sweet all at the same time. Of course, there’s no way in hell I’ll ever remove her from Facebook or Twitter.

Got an email from Dude (John) and wanted to share it with all of you.

Karl

Sorry it took so long to get back to you but I’ve been going nuts with phone calls from bill collectors, lawyers, social security, banks, etc. The girls both received their First Communion on May 9th. They were both so beautiful. I know Lisa was proud of them because I definitely felt her presence. We also had a nice Easter, even though there was an empty feeling inside.

The Devry University Alumni Association (Lisa graduated from there) held a Cancer awareness and Magic show event on April 3rd to benefit our family. I received a nice check from them and we are all so grateful for their thoughtfulness. Lisa definitely made an impact on them, too.

They have also decided to make it an annual Cancer Awareness and magic show event with the proceeds going to set up a scholarship in Lisa’s memory. Talk about being moved to tears. It took me all weekend to come up with just the right words to say thank you.

Christine ended up adopting Lisa’s iPhone and uses it all the time (actually, we’ve been both using it). She knows more about that phone than I do. Cameron is going to be testing for her Black Belt in September and I should be going for mine in December.

Christine has also joined the ATA Leadership program and has been selected by the owner of the school to join the SWAT team (Special Winning Attitude Team). I am so proud of both of them and I know Lisa is, too.

We also attended our first Relay for Life event at Daniel Boone High school back on June 12th. The kids lost a teacher last summer to Cancer, and she must have meant a lot to them, because they put this all together themselves and did a fantastic job. This all took place with Lisa’s grave overlooking the entire event. She attended that same high school and performed in the high school marching band on that same field. That made it even more special.

The local Berks County Cancer Society wanted me to be the key speaker, but was having an extremely difficult time coming up with the right words (I’m not a very good public speaker), and then it hit me. Everything I needed to say was right there on Lisa website, right there in front of me. The problem was, every time I went back to Clusterfook, I started reading, but was moved to tears each time. I had to tell them that it was just too soon for me to speak, and maybe I could do it next year, since this is going to be an annual event.

It was a very special night, Cameron, Christine, and I all did about 5 laps, but when they turned down the lights when it was time to light the luminaries, it really made us realize that all of these people there with us were going through, or had been going through, the same things as we did. It was a very moving experience.

Thanks to everyone for remembering Lisa and for all their love and concern for us, as well.

John (Dude)

Lisa, John, and the girls

Tagged as: Cam, Cancer, Dude, John, Lisa, Relay for Life, Teenie, update

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Thank You

by Secondhand Karl on March 11, 2009

in Cam, Cancer Sucks, Dude, Kidz, Teenie

I want to thank everyone again for all of the support, sympathy, donations and the food that we are receiving. Cameron, Christine and I are extremely grateful.
– Dude aka John

And we had 77 people at Lisa’s virtual memorial on Saturday. Glad that lots of you were there.

Tagged as: Cam, Clusterfook, Dude, Lisa, Teenie

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Lisa’s Funeral Arrangements

by Secondhand Karl on March 1, 2009

in Cancer Sucks, Dude, It Is What It Is

Hey gang. Just got off the phone with Dude and he’s feeling brain dead and like he’s on autopilot. Understandable.

Here are the funeral arrangements for Lisa for those that wish to go or send flowers.

Lisa Gift Kelly

Saturday, March 7th

1:00 PM

Immaculate Conception church, 905 Chestnut St, Douglasville, PA

DONATIONS

Right, thanks to all of you that have emailed me and left comments requesting a way to donate to Lisa’s family. There are a couple of ways to go about this:

Use the Donation Button on Lisa’s Donations page. I’ve changed the Paypal address over to her husband’s address so he has access to the account.

Flowers are wonderful, of course, but for those that want to donate to causes close to Lisa’s heart, perhaps you’d care to view the list of organizations on her Ovarian Cancer page. A donation in her name would be great.

I hope this gives you a couple of options for those of you that want to do something more. John appreciates all the kind words and support. He says the girls are doing well.

Tagged as: cancer blows, Clusterfook, Donations, Dude, funeral arrangements, Lisa, supporting Lisa's family

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Figuring Out a Way to Help

by Secondhand Karl on February 27, 2009

in Cancer Sucks, Dude

A lot of you are asking how you can help Lisa’s family and the short answer, for the time being, is I don’t know. I’m working on it. There’s a Donations page on Lisa’s blog, but after talking with the Dude on the phone, he doesn’t have access to that Paypal account, and he’s not sure if Lisa left him any notes about the account or not.

So for now, please don’t use the Donations page because I don’t know if Dude will have access to the money.

I think we’ll strive to get a new Paypal account in the near future for those that wish to help financially. Right now, Dude is really sick with a stomach virus, so the last thing he wants to do is set up bank routing information with Paypal.

Be patient and we’ll figure something out. He sounds like he’s in agony, Dude, and says he thinks Lisa is actually doing better off than he is at the moment.

For now, lots of prayers and good wishes are plenty.

Tagged as: Cancer Sucks, Clusterfook, Donations, Lisa

{ 31 comments }

It’s Not Long Now

by Secondhand Karl on February 24, 2009

in Cancer Sucks, Dude, It Is What It Is, Kidz

Hey, Karl here.

After a couple of voicemails left for Lisa and not hearing back, which is unusual for her, I called the Dude a little bit ago and found out the reason. She’s not going to be returning phone calls any more, nor emails. No more Tweets from her.

She’s in the final, final stages now, people. So out of her mind with pain and drugs that she often doesn’t even recognize her husband or children. Dude says it’ll be “lucky” if she makes it through the weekend, though he also says it’ll be luckier if God takes her away sooner. She’s that bad.

I’d been riding her to get a “last post” done, but it doesn’t look like that happened. There’s a fragment of a post she was working on, which I’ll post here soon, but there won’t be any more posts from Lisa beyond that.

Those of you that live locally to Lisa and her fam, I know Dude and the kids would appreciate any meals brought over, since the last thing on Dude’s mind is cooking dinner right now. Everything is on hold now, just waiting for the final moment, and Dude is doing everything he can just to keep it together.

He says that the kids are taking it much better than he is.

My heart is just breaking. From here on out, I won’t be posting updates about Lisa on my blog…I’ll keep you posted here, of course. I’ve been getting an inordinate amount of traffic and email from you folks hoping to hear news. I answer it all, but it may not be instantaneous.

If you’re of the praying sort, pray that Lisa doesn’t suffer much more. Pray for her family.

Tagged as: Cancer, Cancer Sucks, Clusterfook, Dude, It Is What It Is, Kidz

{ 226 comments }

A Note For Santa

by Lisa on December 24, 2008

in Cancer Sucks, Dude, Kidz

My youngest daughter is eight years old and in the third grade. Going by those statistics I’d wage a bet that this is the last year she’s going to believe in Santa Claus. In order to prove that he exists she tests him every year by throwing in a monkey wrench on her list. This year is no different.

I dragged my sick body out of bed and just spent the past hour and a half on her monkey wrench of 2008.

This year she crafted a list of gifts for Dude and I to give her and a separate list of gifts for Santa to give her…along with “A Note For Santa”.

Santa, please may I have a picture of your reindeer, the North Pole, you, Mrs. Claus, and all the Elfs.

Can you please take me on a trip to the North Pole before you leave?

You can wake me up, I promise I won’t tell anyone except my dad, mom and my sister!! I will just show the pictures to them, no one else!!

I took care of the pictures by using Google and printing them out and putting them in frames. I wrote a letter to her like I was Santa and explained that I just didn’t have the time to take her to the North Pole with all the gifts I have to deliver. Of course I let her know that it didn’t mean I, Santa, didn’t love her…maybe we could do the ride another night.

I hope she buys that.

I’ve never seen her so excited about Christmas as she is this year. At 7:00 am this morning she couldn’t sit still and said, “Mom I’m just too excited to sit still…this is going to be the longest day ever!!!”

As sick as I feeling right now, I’m just as excited about this Christmas as she is. If I had to write a note to Santa I’d just thank him for giving me a child like Teenie and Cam, and a husband like Dude to spend the holiday with.

Happy Holidays,

Lisa

Tagged as: Cam, Cancer Sucks, Christmas, Dude, Santa, Teeny

{ 26 comments }

Gettin’ Ribs

by Lisa on December 10, 2008

in Dude, WTF?

What’s this, another post? What’s happening to me? I haven’t posted daily in forever. Don’t get used to it because I’m not sure I can commit to doing this again but let’s just go with it for now.

Perhaps I’m just excited because Dude PROMISED me that he’d take me to Smokey Bones for spare ribs today. Yes, I’m still craving them.

Although she sent me a great recipe that I can make in my crock pot. And anything I can make in my crock pot is a good thing, right? I’ll save that recipe for another time…

Yesterday I asked Dude to drive me to the bank. I often like to have him drive me around town like he’s my chauffeur when I don’t feel that great. He agreed to take me. On the way home I said, “I want cream chipped beef on toast” so we went to the diner.

At the diner I scoured the menu looking for creamed chipped beef…I’ve been getting it there for 12 years. It was missing. I panicked and asked the waitress where it was. She looked at me like I was crazy, which is up for debate, and told me they no longer serve it.

“But that’s the ONLY reason I came here…for the cream chipped beef! What do you mean you don’t have it anymore???”

She told me again that they no longer serve it.

I realized that I was acting like a spoiled child who wanted her to pull some out of her ass so I ordered a crab cake instead. I still want cream chipped beef and there is no other diner around here that will compare to MY diner so it looks like I’ll have to make my own.

Damn them.

What’s with all my food cravings? It’s not like I could possibly be pregnant (since I had a hysterectomy four years ago).

As he would say…on a TUA (totally unrelated asides)…more gifts have arrived for my birthday. Some without the names of the giver which makes it hard to say thank you.

I received and iTunes gift card but the giver’s name was not included.

I also received a bottle of Philosophy’s Grace but the giver’s name was not included. It smells wonderful.

I received a black, cashmere wrap which is beautiful and again…the giver’s name is missing.

Please come forward so I can thank you properly.

I received Cancer Vixen and The Rolling Stones Rock N’ Roll Circus from Jaquelynn. Thank you so very much for both gifts.

I also received The Chrismas Sweater by Glenn Beck from Mary. I’m looking forward to reading this right away since it’s the season. Thanks Mary!

I think that the people in my neighborhood are beginning to think that I’m having an affair with the UPS man since he’s been to my house almost everyday.

Time to get ready for Smokey Bones…SPARE RIBS!!!!

Tagged as: Dude, Smokey Bones, WTF?

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