Sue would be proud......

Wow! What a day Saturday was……

I know Sue is very proud to see how everyone came together to pull off something extra special. The fact that she was not able to have her celebration service while she was alive, Joel and West Valley did not disappoint. My wife Kathy mentioned that even after 3.5+ hours of the service, (planned for 2hrs) no one wanted it to end. The amount of love shown for one person and the impact Sue had on so many lives sure makes a brother proud to say “yes, I am Sue’s brother”. Thank you to everyone who attended and for those that could not attend, your thoughts and presence were still felt by all of us.

Many thanks go out to so many who made this service amazing. (so much love in one room) I hesitate to call any one person out since I would hate to leave off any of you.

As for the blog, I do plan to continue to write periodically in order to keep people updated on the family or something related back to Susan. I plan to take all of the past blog updates and create a book for my parents as a memory maker. If anyone is interested in purchasing their own version, I will place an order process through Publishers.com for anyone interested in a copy. I did this for my best friend Mike Dougherty so he could have this memory maker for his daughter when she is old enough to see what her father went through fighting this dreaded disease.

There are two special updates I would like to share with all of you. The first is when Joel finished the service announcing what Sue had wanted him to share with everyone. Sue had stated that if her message touched one person who would give their lives over to Christ, that she would be willing to die for this life change. Saturday after the service, Joel was approached by a person who mentioned to him that the person they were with desired to have Christ accepted into her life. With tears in Joel’s eyes, he witnessed exactly what Sue desired and found himself smiling into the sky as Sue smiled back.

The second update happened to me following the service. As most everyone had departed the church, I turned around to see little Elizabeth Moxley standing right behind me with her mom and both speechless staring at me. She asked if I remembered her and I soon realized that this was little Elizabeth I met in Sue’s class, but more importantly, recognized her for the quilt her mother and her had made Susan to use while having cancer treatments. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart for what she did for Susan and before I could say how much Susan loved her, we caught each other’s eyes and I became speechless as a flow of tears fell down my cheeks. We stared at each other for over 10 seconds and my heart beating fast and furious, I could not get out the words. We spoke through our eyes saying we are both very sad and hurt to know that someone so influential in our lives is no longer physically here. Elizabeth, if you are reading this note, know that each day will slowly get better and the wound in your heart is deep, but does heal over time. If you can smile a lot, think happy thoughts and thank God for putting Sue in your 12 years of life on earth, then the wound heals much faster than being bitter and upset about her departure to heaven. Thank you for having the heart the size of Oregon and do know my sister Susan loved you so very much. Now go be mighty Elizabeth and live your life as Sue did.

Finally, I would like to share with you a letter written by my best friend Mike Dougherty who has been battling lung cancer for 5 yrs now and was instrumental in mentoring Sue and setting up time (free of charge) with his doctors at UCSF to review Sue’s case and provide any insight to their findings. In fact, it was on this trip to UCSF that one of the key doctors asked if Sue had ever had her home checked for radon? The rest is history.

Mike means the world to me and thought it was best to have this published in Sue’s blog for everyone to see.

Dear Sue,
I wanted to send you a message on your special day in the hopes that I could shine some light onto how much your struggle touched me as a fellow cancer survivor. As you were fighting I so wished that I could come up with some magic words, or some miracle, something that would just make it all go away, and take you back to where you were before this whole odyssey started. I often think about that.
I also wanted you to know, that I know, how hard you fought to spend another beautiful day with all of your friends and family. To endure the chemo treatments and the highs and lows of all of the testing, scanning, waiting, thinking, poking, prodding, laughing, and crying. In a word, call it torture. You handled it all with such grace. The inspiration that I was able to draw from you has given me the strength to continue to keep fighting, living, and loving. That’s what you did each and every day. Thank you my dear.
And finally Sue, you and I will forever share a special gift. Somebody once told us both that they would take our cancer in their own body if they could. Nobody says that and actually means it right? Not true. I can think of only one, and I think he is reading this letter to you right now. He’s your brother and my best friend. Thank you for your life, and inspiring me to fight for every beautiful day I have left on this Earth.

Love,
Mike Dougherty

In parting, I want to reach out to my older brother Mike, sisters Stacy & Tara and let you know there are big shoes to fill now that Sue is in Heaven. My cell phone bill has decreased 50% over the past 2 months and I want to want to fill that air time with you on it. :-)

Love to all and remember, Go Be Mighty and make Sue proud.

Matt

Updates for Sue's celebration service

Hi everyone,
We are finalizing the plans for Sue's celebration service and would like to communicate that we have a great hotel rate at the Marriott Courtyard Beaverton which is less than 10 minutes from Southwest Bible Church where the service will be held. Rate: $69.00 per night from Friday-Sunday (checking out Monday).

Marriott Courtyard Beaverton
8500 SW Nimbus Ave.
Beaverton, OR 97008
503-641-3200

See you on the 24th at 1pm.

Dress code: Cheerful colors