We Honor, Commemorate & Celebrate

April Hichens & Mark McLaren
June 2009

Honor

Elizabeth Paris, with husband Jay Ress, daughter Elysha and son Zach

We are participating in our Half Iron Man Race in honor of our close friend, Elizabeth Paris (Nashville, TN) who, at 40 years of age, is fighting advanced breast cancer. Mother of two young children and wife and life partner to her husband, Jay, Elizabeth has always lived as though the world were her oyster. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Stanford and went on to earn her Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She traveled extensively, sought new adventures both academic and artistic, and embraced her role as an effective and passionate bridge between people, ideas and time. We race with our desire to see Elizabeth thrive again and with the hope she can witness the full blossoming of her own children, as we hope to do with ours.

Commemoration

We race in memory of our dear, dear friend, Daniela Bailer-Jones, who died of an aggressive form of bone cancer at 37 years of age in November 2006. Daniela’s son, Ezra, shares a special bond with our family: he and our youngest child, Bowie, celebrate their birthdays on the same day, May 11, which happened to be Mother’s Day when I delivered Bowie. We had just left Ezra’s 4th birthday party/Mother’s Day Brunch at Daniela’s and husband Coryn’s home when I went into labor.

Daniela Bailer-Jones and her son Ezra

We got to know Daniela after she had just completed a very aggressive chemo/radiation therapy blitz, just a year after she had her leg amputated to her hip. She resolved early on to center her life on her young family, work and friends rather than allow the cancer to consume all that she knew and loved. She did so through much pain and chronic fatigue. She swam and biked regularly in spite of it all and, when times got tough, she and her husband sternly reminded one another there was no room for self-pity. The business of living needed to be attended to – no time for languishing. She had earned her Ph.D. from Cambridge University where she met her husband just a year before she was diagnosed. She continued her academic pursuits as a visiting Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh and then returned to Germany as a professor, all the while shepherding her young son’s physical and emotional growth with an eye on the odometer of her life. Her biggest concern was always the welfare of her son and husband once she passed. We hold Daniela and her vigilance in living life to the end as our guide on our own journey now and beyond.

Celebration

Mark's mother, Elizabeth Forrest

We also race in celebration of Elizabeth Forrest and Nicki Jepsen, both survivors of breast cancer who are in full remission, and Dave McLaren, Mark’s dad, who had surgery for prostate cancer in 2004, and has had a clean bill of health ever since.

Elizabeth is Mark’s mother, an extraordinary life force. We rely on her for her fantastic sense of humor, constantly evolving wisdom, and her unabashed love and support for all our wild and woolly adventures and challenges. She finds love and beauty in all the nooks and crannies of her life and extends that love to all who are fortunate enough to cross paths with her. She has been on a long and winding road with her cancer and was granted a clean bill of health this year. We are all so grateful to have her in our midst! She is known as “Gugie” to our children and is as unique as her name implies. We love you, Gugie!

Our beloved friend Nicki

Nicki Jepsen: constant and loyal friend, confidante, surrogate aunt to our boys, landlady, personal accountant, and everything else in between. Our lives would be so dramatically different without our Nickilein. She, too, is in full remission after having been diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago. She is 50 years young and constantly on the go, peppering the world with her extraordinary good will and enthusiasm for life, for friends, family and every pursuit any of us have ever considered, accomplished, or not. Nicki and her incredible sister, Anya, are the one degree of separation between us and Team In Training. We would not be here for so many reasons if it were not for them.

David McLaren - Mark's Dad

Dave McLaren has been a central figure in Mark’s life. He has been there for Mark through thick and thin. Always supportive – without passing judgment. Not every son has a dad like this. Mark and April consider themselves truly blessed to have Dave in their lives. Thanks to his successful prostate cancer treatment, they look forward to spending lots more years with him.

Dave and his wife Diane, “Grandpa Dave and Grandma Di” to Mark and April’s boys, have spent many hours with the boys, at the zoo, at the beach, touring the USS Midway, and we all look forward to their next visit to Seattle. Successful cancer treatments do exist. We are so glad for that. The work being done by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is extending the reach of these treatments every day.

We celebrate our lives, past, present and future on behalf of those who have inspired us: Dave/Dad, Nicki, Elizabeth/Mom, Daniela and Elizabeth Paris.

We thank you all. We love you all.