On Friday the 8th I went to happy hour with my
friends. I haven’t seen my one
friend for a many years. It was so
nice to get together. As we were
sitting there my one friend told me that her friend was singing at the relay;
the same one I would be speaking at.
We thought maybe she was singing at the opening. Well when I went to relay and stood in
front of the stage I say this woman who looked like the woman that my friend
had shown me a picture of. So I
walked up on the stage and asked her if she knew my friend and sure enough this
was the woman my friend said was singing at relay. She didn’t sing at the opening. She was singing just before my speech. She was amazing just like my friend
told me she was.
As I sat on the stage listening to the song I had to work
really hard not to fall apart. I
started to shake. Scott held me
and comforted me. I took some deep
breaths. I took my place at the
podium and started to speak. My
speech went very well. The rain
let loose right in the middle of my speech and I thought for sure that people
would leave, but they stayed. I
choked for a moment and Scott whispered in my ear, breath honey breath. I paused and took a breath and then I
was able to go on. Scott and I
walked hand in hand next to our friend Bruce who played the bag pipes and led
the Luminary lap.
I’m sure I was able to do so well because of all the support
I was given before hand. I was
greeted by friends before I gave my speech with hugs and good wishes. Thank you everyone.
After the lap the man in charge of the sound system at the
time came up to me and paid me a very nice compliment. He said, “I have heard many Luminary
speeches but yours was the best by far.
I felt I knew your daughter through the story you shared. And in her story she had so much
strength and courage. She was an
amazing young woman and such and inspiration.”
I also had a young lady come to me and thank me. She said Kathryn’s story gave her
strength and courage to continue her battle. She said Kathryn and I have inspired her to live. I told her that Kathryn would want me
to inspired people and now she needed to pass it on. Her tears were flowing down her cheeks but they were tears
of relief and hope. She knew she
would be ok after hearing Kathryn’s story. Her young husband was right there. He didn’t say much but he was very thankful and so happy to
see his wife feeling so much better about her situation. You could see in his eyes that he loved
her so much and he was worried but also thankful to see her renewed spirit.
Saturday morning my Mom stopped by to visit. Mom was on her way to a dance
performance for my niece Julia. So
she didn’t go to the relay with us for the Tom Mosich award. Richard and Bee showed up and finally
Mitch and Lauren. We all headed
out to the relay and met Tommy and Catherine there. Tommy is the son of Tom Mosich that this particular award
was named after. We also were able
to visit with Sue (Tommy’s Mom) and Tom’s Mother. Tom battled cancer for many years and yet he continued to
support the relay even through his illness. He was one of the people Dr. Gordie Klatt called on to get
relay started in the very beginning.
His courage was amazing.
Kathryn really looked up to Tom and she made him several luminary bags
through out the years. Tom was one
of her inspirations. Kathryn’s
spirit was much like Tom’s and this is why she was honored with this
award. Tommy presented to award to
Richard. He was really cute as he
talked about Kathryn. He presented
a beautiful statue and a pair of running shoes to represent Tom’s love of
running. He said he looked for
running shoes with rainbows and unicorns but couldn’t find any. So, he then looked for bright pink
shoes but there weren’t any in men’s sizes. But he did find some bright green shoes that he thinks
Kathryn would approve. It was
funny because that is just what Kathryn liked. Tommy knew her and knew her pretty well.
Scott and I shared in the acceptance speech. I have added it below. I did change it a little just before
but the idea is still the same. As
I spoke about the team C.A.K.E. Scott and Richard showed off the t-Shirts they
were wearing which were from her team.
She had designed them each year to fit the relay theme. Then when I spoke about the t-shirts
she designed for her senior project Mitch, Lauren, Bee and I were each wearing
one of the 5 different designs she had made. Matt, her boyfriend had come up on stage too so when I spoke
about him I had him wave. I should
have mentioned what a wonderful thing his Mom has done too but I forgot. I apologized for leaving her out. She has raised money and water products
to donate to Camp Goodtimes. Water
products like inner tubes and life vests.
They have put in countless hours on this project. Next year they will work on getting
water shoes for all of the campers.
Fabulous family!
After we spent some time at relay we all went to our
house. Most of us (Richard, Bee,
Mitch, Lauren, Tommy, Catherine, Scott and Myself) and my Mom came a little
later. We sat out in the back yard
and talked and Scott brought out some snacks. Then we all worked on dinner. We sat in the dining room and ate off of our fine china. It doesn’t get used much. What a great evening. In the morning I spent some quality
time with my Mom and then the kids all got up and I had time with them. It was a good weekend.
I know Kathryn was with us. I could smell that sweet smell. This smell seems to show up at particular times. I can almost tell you exactly when Kathryn
will be there.
I hope you all were able to enjoy the sun today. It was here and it will soon be gone
again.
Tom Mosich
Spirit Award Speech 2012
Kathryn was diagnosed at 8 with a cancerous brain
tumor. Shortly after she started
to wage her own war on cancer. She
attended the Relay for Life in Tacoma starting in 1999 by walking in the
survivor lap. She also started
making others aware by doing show and tell at school. She shared her scar, radiation mask, gas mask for being put
to sleep and even part of her tumor.
She explained how radiation and MRI’s never hurt you. She also let her friends know that cancer
was not contagious. She had it but
she could not give it to them. As
she was going through her treatment she was asked to visit a scared newly
diagnosed little girl who was in the hospital and about the same age. Of course she obliged. Kathryn gave her and her family hope
and peace. Later they became good
friends at Camp Goodtimes.
As she progressed through school she continued to do reports
on cancer. Always sharing the
latest information and statistics.
She also continued to be involved with the oncology clinic parties. As she got older she was always willing
to lend a helping hand with the oncology parties
She also took part in the Pediatric Brain Tumor foundation
“Ride for Kids.” She spoke many times at this events as all of the kids are
interviewed. This last year 2011
she didn’t attend. She told me they
would be happy to know that she was at college being a Normal College student
doing well and having fun. As I
spoke to the group they were happy to hear that Kathryn was well and enjoying
college.
From 2000-2004 she was a member of the Mary Bridge Relay
team. In 2005 she joined a
friend’s team in support of her friend and family. In 2006 through 2009 she captained the team C.A.K.E. cids
against kancer everywhere. She
gathered her friends to have them join the fight against cancer. Her team raised over $10,000 in one
year and won an award that year. They
had a huge dinner auction to do this.
Also during her time in high school and college she wrote several essays
about life, cancer and herself.
Always writing about living, happiness, hope and encouraging
others. She did an internship at
the hospital to help prepare her for her future career. She wanted to become a child life
specialist in the oncology department.
She wanted to be the one the children would remember as having fun
with. She wanted to share give
them happiness through their treatments.
Her senior project was based on fighting cancer as well. She designed, created and sold cancer
themed t-shirts. All of the
proceeds went to the Tacoma Relay.
She decided to attend Western Washington University and
Tommy Mosich asked her if she would like to be on the relay committee. You would have thought she won the
lottery. She was so excited. I remember her saying, “Mom, I was
asked to be on the relay committee – as a Freshman.” She just couldn’t believe as a Freshman she would be asked
to be on the committee. She was on
the committee for 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Unfortunately she didn’t live to finish out the 2012 relay season. She also served on WSAC which stands
for Western Students Against Cancer.
Kathryn and I were also honored to work for Unique Beverage
to support cancer related events.
We were the x-passion team that donated Wired, Cascade Ice and cash to
cancer related events. We worked
with approximated 140 different events each year. We did this from 2006 to then end of 2011.
Kathryn started to attend Camp Goodtimes in 2001. She has never missed a year since. She
went from camper to a Leader in Training 2008 and took the mandatory year off
in 2009. However she was at camp
that year a couple of times. She
just couldn’t stay away. The next
two years she volunteered as a staff member at both sessions each year. She said, “Camp is my favorite place on
Earth.” “Panda “was her camp name
short for pandemonium. She
encouraged others to volunteer at camp.
New volunteers due to Panda are: Tobogan, Boots, Glitter, her loving
boyfriend Kodiak and her Oncologist Dr. Tofu. The little girl she visited in the hospital back in 1999
also became a volunteer Zebra. She
brought love and laughter to camp in the most sincere way. She had the spirit to light up anyone’s
day. She wrote: “I have found that
life is too short not to live it hand in hand with happiness. Every situation can be looked at as
“glass half full” instead of “glass half empty”. This is what I do so that I can live my life cheerfully and
worry free.”
This last summer 2011 she was at camp talking with
Ziggy. Ziggy recently sent us a
letter and in it she said: “Last summer there was one night at dinner that
Kathryn mentioned something about treatment. That made me ask if she had relapsed. She filled me in on what had happened
but said she wasn’t concerned. She
said, whatever happens would go ahead and happen and she was only focusing on
giving all the kids their best summer ever. And she did!”
Her dream was to become a childlife specialist in
the oncology department. She wrote: I want to be able to blossom joy from
cancer and I figure what better way to do it than through my work. I believe
everything happens for a reason, even the incredibly upsetting occurrences. No
one can explain why cancer happens to the people it does, but we all must learn
to see past the negatives. Cancer has blessed me with open eyes and a heart
full of love to share.
In April of 2010 she was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma stage
4 (brain tumor) and in October of 2011 it came back. Instead of giving up or becoming depressed when she was given
3 to 6 months to live she planned a Huge Christmas Party as a send off
party. February 2nd
2012 she passed away quietly in her bedroom with her family by her side. Her spirit will always live on
especially at Camp Goodtimes and In Relay.
We are very honored to accept this award for Kathryn. Tom Mosich was an inspiration to
Kathryn. She made many luminaria
bags for Tom through out the years.
She looked up to him and his efforts to fight cancer. Kathryn would have been beaming with
pride on this day if she were here. Getting an award in that was created for a man that she
admired so much would mean the world to her. We are extremely proud of her and very thankful to have had
Kathryn in our lives.
Thank you so much for this great honor.
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