The "C" Word

Get your mind out of the gutter.  I am not talking about THAT “C” word.  I am talking about cancer. 

My exposure to cancer was when my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was in the 4^th grade.  My understanding of it didn’t progress past knowing that my Mom had to drive her Mother to Nashville every day for a treatment and that my Grandmother was living with us.  I also realized the ugly side of cancer as it took my Grandmother from us about six months after diagnosis.  Through the years there were others who I knew that had cancer.  Some won, some didn’t.  Either way, it took its toll on those impacted – the patient and the patients’ families. 

Fast forward to the fall of2010.  We received word that a good friend of our family, Allison, had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  That one kind of hit home - she was one of us.  She wasn’t an older person or a grandmother.  I am happy to report that she is recovering nicely and well considered cancer free. 

As I was moving my friends, David & Kristina, my cell phone rang.  The number I saw was not one that I see daily (Momma Squire, etc.) on my phone.  It was my neighbor, Jim.  He told took a deep breath and told me that he was with his wife, Sue, at the E.R.  They were at first thinking that she may have been having a stroke due to the severe headaches.  Long story short – they discovered two tumors in Sue’s noggin and three in her lungs.  She underwent brain surgery to remove the two tumors and it was successful in that they are gone, they weren’t attached, and it appears they will stay gone.  Sue is undergoing chemo on the three tumors in her lungs and the tumors keep shrinking. 

The main thing I want to write about with Sue is her attitude and strength.  Her whole family and friends as well, have leaned on God and His strength to get them through these months.  I can’t think of a better way to show her attitude than to show you two pictures of Sue:

This picture of Sue (2^nd from right) was taken during a celebration of Kingston Springs Elementary School reopening in July 2010.  Note the large smile…..

The next picture was taken a couple of weeks ago at Sue’s pool.  Notice the ever present smile though she has undergone brain surgery and almost eight months of chemo.

Not a large difference in the two smiles is there?  Attitude is everything.  Sure she has her good and bad days, but don’t we all. 

Not long after Sue’s diagnosis, we got word of lung cancer recurrence for another friend and even more recently, one of our former Youth at church was diagnosed with Lymphoma.  When it rains, it pours. It is a shame that when I log into Caring Bridge, there is more than one site to visit.

Why am I writing this?  To whine about friends’ medical woes?  Nah, I can’t whine.  I can do nothing but look with admiration at my friends, especially Sue, at how they handle whatever life throws at them.  Maybe I wrote it to help me and you realize what we have and to be thankful for each and every day that we have. 

Hug those you love and make that call you have been forgetting and tell them you love them.

Zach, a thankful Tennessee Squire

P.S. Sue has been documenting her journey on caring bridge.  Her site can be found at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/suehasse2010

School Pride

Well, Kingston Springs Elementary had its 15 minutes of fame on Friday, October 29, 2010 when it was the subject of NBC’s School Pride (http://www.nbc.com/school-pride/episode-guide/season-1/48294/rising-from-the-flood/episode-103/52245/).  For those who don’t know, think Extreme Home Makeover for schools.  NBC chose Kingston Springs Elementary (KSES) because of the flooding we received back in May.  The school was under about 8 foot of water and everything in the school that wasn’t concrete was destroyed.  Both of my boys attended that school from K-4 and Momma Squire and I have numerous friends who work there or have children attend there.

I am not naïve enough to think that everything I see on TV is true nor do I believe everything I read on the Internet.    It was very interesting to see the show, how they portrayed our town, and wonder if who you could pick out on the TV.  Yes, there were viewing parties all over Kingston Springs that night.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I am very appreciative of what School Pride did for our school and our county.  Our county can’t fund the schools sufficiently to buy copy paper (another blog for another day), so I know that our county couldn’t have afforded to refurbish the school the way School Pride did it.  In fact, because we had insurance, the insurance proceeds were able to be used for basic items and donations from around the country and the School Pride project were able to outfit our school with items (think technology and creature comforts) that normally wouldn’t be available.  For that, I thank you, NBC. 

But, I love it when media or music folks “pull back the curtain” and tell or show us how things really happen.  Well, here is my chance to “pull back the curtain” on some things.  None are really bad, but mostly attributed to staging, etc.   Basically, the folks on the show are a muscle-bound dude, nerd dude, big black comic lady, and a former Miss America. 

Momma Squire, the eldest offspring, and I volunteered during the week the “build” was occurring and here are some tidbits from ”behind the curtain".

• The show opened with the team driving to KSES and Kingston Springs for the first time.  Well, based upon the clip, they were about 1.5 miles past the school and driving away from it!  As the team was talking about the damage, they showed clips of River Plantation damage in Bellevue – 10 miles away .
• The team had a huge countdown to start the clock ticking from seven days.  The problem was that the clock start was filmed in June at the announcement and the build was in late July.
• They showed and promoted that Lady Antebellum performed a concert for the school on the reveal day.  Well, only Axel Rose would count it as a concert. They played one song and then did a second take of the same song.
• During the week of the build, we “had” a huge bake sale in the city park to raise money for the build.  Well, we down there in the 100 degree heat to watch brownies melting.  They filmed the bake sale, even having the sale change its time to accommodate their filming schedule.  They had the teachers play in the splash pad with a local photographer taking their pictures to hang in the teacher’s lounge.  None of this made the show.  None.  Notta.  Zip point squat.
• Kingston Springs overwhelmed these folks with our volunteer spirit.  They actually cut-off the volunteer sign up.  There were over 1,500 folks who came out and volunteered the week of the build.  I had a problem with the fact that they showed the team “working” and not any of the volunteers working.  The team would trot out, film a scene, and then go back into the RV (donated by a local resident). 
• The show also leveraged local businesses into donating items such as landscaping, sound system and then when asked for a free plug – they were told that $100k got them on the banner and much more would get them a shot during the show.
• Speaking of shots on the show – here is my favorite blooper.  We have a coffee shop (www.redtreecoffee.com) run by two sisters, Amy and Katie.  These ladies served as the volunteer deployment center immediately after the flood – well before the various governmental agencies responded.  The School Pride team decided to profile the coffee shop and sisters for all their hard work.  Well, Nerd guy jumps in his car, pushes the OnStar button and asks for turn-by-turn directions to Red Tree Coffee.  Don’t need that GPS feature.  Turn left out of school, go maybe a mile and the shop is on your left.  Right after that, the OnStar commercial came on.

There you have it.  That is your behind the scenes look at a reality show.  I am very very grateful to School Pride and what they did for our elementary school and our community.  Speaking for that, sales tax collections for the month of July were over budget.  Thanks – our city and county needed that.  I just wanted to shed a little light on the subject.

Zach, A School Pride volunteer and a Tennessee Squire