As many of you know October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is great, but I thought I’d take a week to do a “cancer” week. This week here at My Book Addiction and More we will be featuring various authors/friends and running a daily giveaway.
Today is my day, tomorrow author Lisa Renee Jones is visiting, Wednesday author Colleen Coble is stopping by, Thursday is author Donna Grant’s day, Friday is author Caridad Pineiro’s day, on Monday we’ll have author Cynthia Eden for the final Cancer week visit and author Jodi Thomas will be here as well. Now each day from today, October 17th, until Tuesday,October 25th, 2011 we will give away a copy of ENTANGLED, an anthology that was released by some great authors and the proceeds from every sale is going to Cancer Research, here is a link to ENTANGLED, http://www.cynthiaeden.com/books/entangled/.
Now for my blog post. Today I wanted to kick off this week by telling you a bit about my mother-in-law, Elizabeth Ann Whitley Keel. Now I know there are jokes about mother-in-laws and how bad they are, and while mine could drive me nuts, I loved her. She was truly like another mother, she’d get mad at me, she’d tell me things that hurt, but she loved me. She treated me just like her son, same as my mom does. My mom loved her as well. When me and my husband married we really did merge our families. My mother-in-law, who I always called, Mrs. Ann, was a great woman. She left behind a husband and only one son, my husband, and 2 grandchildren. She passed away too young.
The image above is Mrs. Ann, my husband, and my father-in-law, Ray, it was taken on our wedding day, June 22, 1996.
Mrs. Ann battled breast cancer 15yrs earlier and won. Then she got a different form of cancer that took her life. She was a strong woman who battled this disease with grace and courage. I’m including various images of her. I’ve battled with what to write, she wasn’t perfect, but she was Mrs. Ann. She was a good woman, had her faith, and loved her family. I miss her still today. She knew before the doctors ever told her that she had cancer and that this time she wouldn’t win the battle, but she still fought it. We so wish she’d have won that battle, there are times when anger will peek it’s head up for all of us, anger that she died so young, anger that a cure hasn’t been found, anger that she didn’t fight harder. While we know she did all she could, I’m not gonna lie and say it’s not there. Here is one of my favorite images of Mrs. Ann, this is her as a little girl,
I don’t know why I love it, but I do.
And here she is with our kids, 
another favorite image of mine, Mrs. Ann with my husband a little boy. I just love the look of this image.
The image above is one most say looks the most like her,she was a smoker and there was nothing we could do to change that, and nope Lung Cancer wasn’t what took her life.
The above image is hazy but this is my mom and Mrs. Ann on our wedding day. Me and my husband are extremely lucky we didn’t/don’t have one mother who loves us we have two. They both love us and can get angry at us, and don’t always take their child’s side in moments but through all we know no matter what both of these wonderful amazing woman will always love us. We are their children and for that we thank God. He couldn’t have picked better mother’s for either of us. Thank you God for giving us the mothers you did, we treasured our time with Mrs.Ann and miss her. We know each day is a blessing with my mother and pray we get to keep her for a LONG time.
If you would like to share your stories with us please do so. We will be featuring various authors later this week, some may talk about cancer, others not. I hope you will enjoy these posts and that you will learn things or find hope. I’m including a link to various resources for Cancer if you’d like to help out, help us promote ENTANGLED so tons of money can be given to research.
National Cancer, How to find Resources in Community
There are so many more links I could provide. If you all would like me to, please let me know. For now I’ll give you details on how you can win a copy of ENTANGLED, ebook format only.
Giveaway
If you would like to win a goodie bag with some bath and body products, a note pad, a tote(says “fight like a girl”) and a few surprises, along with an ebook copy of ENTANGLED, all you have to do is comment here.I’d love it if you tweeted about this post and this week, helped us spread the word about ENTANGLED but I’m not making it a must. Just comment and you’ll be given a chance to win. This giveaway is open everywhere. Good luck and I hope you all will come back the rest of this week.
hugs,
WendyK
What a fantastic story. I don't know anyone who has or has had breast cancer, I however do have colon cancer. I know what it is to worry about day to day things.
Wendy, thanks for sharing your story about your mother in law; a loving tribute. My mother died from cancer, although it was not breast cancer. I have three friends who had breast cancer and beat it – Yay! I bought my copy of Entangled in September.
Wonderful thoughts on Mrs. Ann. And yes we all loved her. I have to say I have dealt with many dying cancer victims,but Mrs. Ann was the most calm person I have ever had the pleasure of being around even at the very end. She was a wonderful person, mother,mother-in-law and grandmother. As some doesn't know,Wendy your Granddaddy died from a rare form of cancer,also(man made) in 1970. Her great aunt,one my Daddy's sister's had a brain tumor.Her Grandma,died in 1985 of renal failure,but also had an intestinal cancer. So our family has a wide variety of cancers. My Daddy's youngest sister had breast cancer and beat it,she was a military wife in Germany when it occured. So go out and buy "Entangled" and help support the cause…..
AprilR
Correction my Daddy, Wendy's Granddaddy died in 1977.
Thank you for sharing this story. Mrs. Ann sounded like a wonderfully strong woman and I'm so sorry for your loss. My family too has been affected by cancer with my grandmother losing her fight but my mother surviving. This is an important issue that I'm happy people keep talking about.
A lovely tribute to Mrs. Ann!
A very good friend is participating in the October MA Komen Race for the Cure to celebrate the five years that have passed since she was originally diagnosed.
Thank you for your story that honors Mrs. Ann. I think it would mean a lot to her.
What a beautiful story you shared with us today in honoring Mrs. Ann.
The pictures are awesome, I like looking at old family picture, always brings a smile to my face.
It's wonderful how strong and loving she was. It's a good thing you had someone around to tell you the truth, not always giving you a polite smile and lies. Honesty is so refreshing, believe me, my mom and all my aunts are very honest. Sometimes too honest with me, but I do love them all dearly.
In my family and my family by marriage, I have dealt with cancer.
Between uncles, aunts and my own father, cancer has struck us.
In one form or another it hit and hit hard.
It does leave one always asking…. why?? The only good thing to come out of all of this is that we are all much closer to each other. We laugh more, smile more, pick up the phone more. We count each day as a blessing and look to a brighter tomorrow together.
Thank you for sharing your story.She sounded like a great woman.We have to cherish the time with our loved ones.You never know what could happen next.My grandmother dies of Breast Cancer.This year my sister niece and myself participated in the Breast Cancer walk and will be doing it again next year.
Thank you for the chance to win this anthology.
Great story. Thanks for sharing it. Thanks for the chance.
What a beautiful story. My mother passed when i was 17 from heart disease so I say treasure your mother while she's here. My sil has breast cancer and has fought if for years. She was diagnosed with it the same year that my daddy was diagnosed with bladder cancer.. He passed three years later but she's stilll kicking it. She has battled other types of cancer since. I don't know how she does it. I think this is a great cause and love the idea of book whose proceeds go to cancer research.
A lovely tribute to your mother-in-law. I had a friend who lost the battle to breast cancer at 42. Thank you for the giveaway.
That is a great story about how you felt about your MIL and the pictures of her that you love. My mom, aunt and cousin have all had issues with breast cancer and it's so great to see so much going on to try to find a cure.
Zina
What a great post. My grandmother past away from breats cancer and there have been a few others in my family. Thanks for sharing your wonder story with us.
My grandmother is a breast cancer survivor (15 years) and I have an aunt who had it also. I support breast cancer charities in any way I can, and am very proud to do so. Your MIL sounds like she was a great lady.
Thanks for providing all this resource links and for sharing the story with your mother-in-law. It doesn't matter how strong you are, this disease can affect anyone.