Challenge #81 - Relay for Life

     This week's challenge is done by guest tangler - Erin Olsen (she's the gal who gives us such cool zendala dares and templates).  What fun!  Yes, but something about this one really "challenged" me.  It must be the circles!
     To get started I chose to try the logo for Relay for Life - at least in part.  Then after they were in place, I simply drew a blank.  I could not figure out what to do.  I "made up"  something for the rest of those circles, used Verve (because it is becoming my absolute - momentary - favorite), and then drew a flower for the center.  Rather bland ideas, but I like how it turned out.

     This challenge came about to help raise awareness of a cancer walk Erin is participating in.  Check out the info on this by clicking either button on the side of this post.  I doubt there is a person alive who has not connected with someone touched by cancer.  I have lost both parents, 3 of my grandparents and several aunts and uncles to this enemy.  I have seen it move swiftly through them, striking without a warning.  I have seen it weave its way slowly and deliberately.  Either way,  the devastation it leaves in its path is the same.  To the person afflicted, to those loving and not knowing how to help.  It is no respecter of persons.
    Some time back I wrote about Rebekah, a child in my second grade room.  She was a beautiful dynamo fighting leukemia.  I never saw her cry or complain - just keep battling until her race was over. Another child comes to mind.  Samantha.  She entered my third grade room, very disfigured by retinal blastoma.  Her sight was failing.  She never complained and had the quirkiest sense of humor I have ever encountered.  She eventually lost all her sight.  She called me frequently and came by to see me.  One of the first places she came when she got her guide dog was to see me.  I knew the rules about petting a "working dog".  Her first words, when I met Peach, was "go ahead, Miss Cusson, you know you have to pet him!"  Samantha got involved in tandem bike competitions, traveling all over the world and biking with a partner.  Her last call to me told me about a young man she had met and they were going to be married.  "He's not blind, and he still thinks I am great, go figure".  Two weeks before their marriage, life dealt her the final blow.  She would not recover as she had countless times in the past.  No more quirky calls.  No more "Hey, Miss Cusson."
      The last tile really doesn't have a lot of tangles in it.  Just sunshine and thoughts of sunshine for those suffering from cancer.  Thanks for taking time to read this and as always your comments are my bits of sunshine.  May God bless you this week.

Samantha's sunshine