It was one year ago today and look at the imprint Sue left...Her legacy continues!

Hi everyone,
It was one year ago today that Sue's legacy began here on earth and her presence in Heaven began. I can't imagine how much fun everyone is having with Sue's presence in Heaven's gardens and baseball fields.

Well, what a wonderful weekend in Tigard. A baseball field named after her, a big sign saying "Go Be Mighty" hangs in Fowler Middle school hallways, a scholarship fund to support the geography and spelling bee and a brick in front of the Tigard library with her name on it. Not to mention how many people reflected on her loss and the impact she had on their lives. Now that's leaving your mark here on earth. Well done Sue!

Below is the article from the Oregonian published over the weekend. My mom had a stellar performance speaking for the family and handing out scholarship money to the spelling and geography bee winners.

Tigard's Fowler Middle School dedicates baseball field in honor of former teacher Susan McCormickThe baseball field at Fowler Middle School was officially renamed "Susan McCormick Field" on Friday.
TIGARD -- There was a crowd of hundreds gathered around the diamond. A singing of The Star-Spangled Banner. A ceremonial first pitch. Even a performance of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

It's not baseball season just yet, but it felt like it Friday at Fowler Middle School. And everyone seemed to agree: Susan McCormick would have loved it.

"It's wonderful," said Carolyn McCormick, Susan's mother. "I know that Susan would be thrilled, and just be beaming today."

Susan McCormick died of cancer almost exactly one year ago. She was 52. She spent the previous 10 years as a teacher at Fowler, and made a large impact on the school during that time.

McCormick was an avid baseball fan her entire life -- her father played in the major leagues for the San Francisco Giants, and she grew up around the game. After her death, the school decided to honor McCormick's memory by naming its baseball field after her. Friday's dedication ceremony made it official when Carolyn unveiled the new sign reading "Susan McCormick Field." On the backstop hung a banner with the words "Go be mighty!" -- a phrase Susan often used to encourage her students.

Susan's brother, Matt McCormick, tossed the ceremonial first pitch at the newly dedicated field. A former student of Susan's waited for it behind home plate.


Carolyn McCormick, Susan McCormick's mother, speaks during a dedication ceremony at the Fowler Middle School baseball field Friday.
The event also marked the beginning of a new tradition at the school. With nearly the entire Fowler student body looking on, Carolyn handed $100 scholarship awards to each of the winners of this year's annual spelling and geography bees. The scholarships will be given in Susan McCormick's name, and the winners names' etched onto a plaque at the school. Susan herself established both competitions at Fowler during her time there.

"She thought it was so important to have that here," Carolyn said.

Susan continued to teach even after her cancer diagnosis, including part of last school year.

She died March 6, 2010. About eight months later, her beloved Giants finally claimed a long-awaited World Series championship.

"That was all her," Matt said, grinning.

Fowler teacher Ali Massey, who arrived at the school the same year as Susan, served as emcee for the event. When she found out about the field dedication, Massey said she jumped at the chance to help out and honor her colleague.

"She was an amazing woman," Massey said, later adding, "She left her mark, in more ways than one."

-- Eric Florip Oregonianlive.com

Now, GO BE MIGHTY!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
It has been over 10 months since we said good-bye to Sue and I'm sure many of you still think of her often. I promised many of you that I would add to the blog site every so often in order to keep you updated on the family. Mike Sr. and Dierdre continue to live in Pinehurst North Carolina while their daughter Tara is attempting to enter nursing school. Carolyn (mom) continues to be busy with family and friends (Annie & Sheila) and makes trips south and east to visit Mike Jr., Stacy and us.

Brother Mike Jr. is traveling back & forth to China as his expertise is getting Apple products on the market quickly. His older daughter Kelli is in her 2nd year of a 5 yr PHD program in child psychology and her brother Michael III is in his 2nd year at SCU studying mechanical engineering. Younger sister Stacy still lives in Connecticut while her husband Michael now works for IBM and Ryan (oldest) is in middle school while younger sister Meghan attends 4th grade. We moved to Agoura Hills in August. I am at Warner Brothers and loving the entertainment world, Kathy is busy getting things settled and Madison is playing Varsity soccer for her high school while Mallory is now in 5th grade and enjoys her new friends on the street.

I would like to share with you something I learned from Hakim Djaballah who is the lead researcher at Sloan Kettering in New York City. It is a simple message, but yet so difficult to keep out of our lives in today's busy world. In our conversation about the causes of cancer, he shared with me that the leading cause of cancer today is "stress" Not smoking, but stress.

Discussed with Hakim Djaballah
Any form of stress (work, family, self, life)
Stress releases toxins that weaken the immune system and increases chances for cancer cells to form. We all have cancel cells in our bodies, yet our DNA and make-up are uniquely different causing the cells to form under different circumstances at “any time” or “no time” in our lifetimes here on earth
Moral of the current story:
Exercise 1st and have a good diet to support your workouts
Exercise 1st to keep your body healthy and allows toxins to be released
Exercise 1st to strengthen your immune system

He continued to share with me that conventional therapies are inaccurate and due to the fact that only 2 of 26 drugs approved by the FDA in 2009 were targeted for cancer, shows that as a nation we are not doing enough to find a cure. Cancer continues to adapt to the environment making research to find a cure tougher if we can’t keep up with the rate of change.

Please add the following to your 2011 New Year's Resolution:
1. Exercise on a regular basis
2. Do whatever you can to reduce stress in your life
3. Quit smoking immediately

May 2011 be a great year for all of you.

All the best,

Matt

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

Preparing for Sue's Celebration Service

Hi everyone,
We are asking for help in preparing for Sue's celebration service.

What do we need?
1. Digital pictures with Sue in the picture (jpeg files preferred)
2. Quotes we can use in the video that answer this question: What Sue meant to you (Please keep it to 10 words or less so we can fit it in the video)

Please forward the digital pictures and your response to what Sue meant to you to:

Kelli1015@yahoo.com

Thank you,
Matt

Happy Birthday Sue: March 19th, 2010

My favorite day of the year is March 19th. The days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, the baseball teams are in spring training, the yard starts to bloom and of course, it is Sue's birthday. Hug a family member or someone you love and inspire them with three simple words. Go be mighty! This will make Sue smile. :-)

Sue's Celebration Services are set
Date: Saturday April 24th at 1:00p.m.
Southwest Bible Church
14605 Southwest Weir Road
Beaverton, OR 97007-6164
(503) 524-7000

Dress: Casual wear, but colorful. No dark depressing colors are allowed.

Any questions please contact Matt McCormick at 818-640-2436 or Joel Mason at 503-332-3402

It will be something special for the person who inspired so many of us.

A New Chapter Begins

Saturday at 4:37p.m., you might have felt an earthquake that shook the entire earth. The epicenter was Heaven and it was caused by the celebration thrown welcoming Susan Lynne McCormick. The entire family was together last week as we said our good-byes and spent time telling her what an incredible impact she has had on our lives as well as so many others. Many local family & friends were able to stop by the hospice and share special times.

A special thanks to the Hopewell House for their kind hospitality and service. You made tough times less stressful. To Good Samaritan ICU & CCU. Your willingness to allow many more over the required visitors (from out of town) experienced quality time with Susan. Finally, Susan's wonderful staff of doctors. She chose to stay under the best care and believed it existed under each of you. Dr. Karamlou, your open honest feedback allowed Susan the brutal facts, but gave her peace of mind knowing exactly where things stood. She dealt with open honest feedback much better (good or bad).

Below is the obituary we just submitted to the Oregonian (publishes Wednesday), Tigard Times (publishes Thursday) and the Los Altos Town Crier (publishes Thursday). Thank you all for your kind words of support. We plan to have the celebration service for Susan on either April 16th/17th or 23rd/24th and will post on the blog within the week. Service will most likely take place at West Valley Community Church in Hillsboro. (Her home church)


Portland-Oregon
Susan Lynne McCormick, whose love of children motivated her to change careers at age 37 and become a sixth grade teacher in Tigard, OR, ended a long battle with lung, pancreatic and liver cancer on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at the Portland Hopewell House Hospice. She was 52 years young.

The eldest of four siblings and daughter of Mike & Carolyn McCormick, Susan was a devote Christian and very involved in her church (West Valley Community Church in Hillsboro Oregon). She held the role of treasurer for many years and played key roles in West Valley's "Crew" productions. Susan lived a life of authenticity having been transformed through her relationship with Jesus. Because of that authentic transformed life Susan made a major impact in the lives of so many that knew her. She led by example and communicated her love of Christ to anyone who found interest and listened.

After 15 years of working in the mortgage banking industry, Susan's love for children motivated her to begin a new chapter at age 37 when she completed her bachelor and master's degree in education from Portland State in 2000 and began teaching 6th grade at Fowler middle school in Tigard, Oregon. Her passion was educating children and was well known for going out of her way to help any child who had missed a meal or needed a hug.

Susan viewed teaching children as a 24 hr. responsibility and many Fowler alumni would come back and see Ms. McCormick on a regular basis. She spearheaded the spelling bee contest for Fowler middle school and even participated herself in the 50+ AARP national spelling bee contest in Cheyenne, Wyoming during the summer of 2008. Susan also spent summers as a driver's ed instructor and enjoyed the additional time with the kids.

Born in Alhambra California, Susan lived in Manhattan New York while her father pitched for the New York Giants. After moving west at the end of the 1958 season, Susan grew up in San Mateo California and moved to Mtn.View California in 1966. Susan attended Cooper and Huff Elementary schools, Graham Jr. High and graduated from Awalt High School in 1974. Susan graduated from De Anza College with an A.A. and pursued law enforcement with the Palo Alto police department, but an injury forced Susan to pursue another career which led her into the banking and mortgage industry in the 80's and early 90's before making a career change and pursuing her passion of educating children.

Susan never gave up hope when diagnosed in 2008 with lung and pancreatic cancer, a concept taught by her father, with cancer throughout her body, she was determined to fight it with every ounce of energy. It took almost 18 months from the time she was diagnosed to when she passed away for this dreaded disease to take hold. Her 53rd birthday is March 19th and she did her absolute best to make it to that day.

She leaves behind her beloved Corbett (11 yr old black lab) and a family that adored her. Father Mike, mother Carolyn, step mother Dierdre, sisters Stacy and Tara, brothers Mike Jr. and Matt, sister in-laws: Judith and Kathy, brother in-law: Michael Moeller, nephews: Michael III & Ryan, nieces Kelli, Madison, Mallory and Meghan.

Services for Susan McCormick will occur at West Valley Community Church in Hillsboro, Oregon at a determined date in April, 2010. Susan elected to be cremated at Rose City.

Thank you Susan for giving us all 52 wonderful years of happy memories. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to:

West Valley Community Church 5215 NE Elam Young Parkway Hillsboro, OR 97124 c/o Susan L McCormick
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