Sharsheret
Sharsheret is the Hebrew word for chain. Shasheret is an
organization that helps Jewish woman who have been diagnosed with breast
cancer. After I was first diagnosed with
breast cancer, my brother Scott told me to get in touch with this organization. Of course I was too busy processing the words
“you have cancer” to do much of anything.
However, my mother who is always there to make a phone call and get
something done signed me up. I started
getting emails and information to help me through the journey. A few weeks later a box came in the
mail. It was filled with all sorts of
activities to keep the girls busy while I went through Chemo and surgery. I probably didn’t use the organization to the
fullest capacity. Part of the reason is
because I live in an amazing community.
I didn’t have to even ask Cheryl for something and could just be
thinking it and it would get done.
Everyone helped me out. People I
didn’t even know came to my house with food or to help me with my children. It was an amazing feeling knowing what type
of place we chose to live in. I still get chills now thinking of how wonderful
my community is.
Back to Sharsheret…..Here is a little tidbit about my
brother Scott.
A lot of my friends know
him as “the doctor", although now that Aaron
is also a doctor that could get a little confusing. I will usually call or
text when something happens to one of the kids (Shua swallowing a bead). My brother is a pediatrician. Of course I take my kids to their own doctor,
but there is something of hearing what my brother has to say first. I know that he looks at my kids like family
and wouldn’t tell me something that he wouldn't do for his own girls. In the small
Jewish world that exists I have run into people over time that have used my
brother as a pediatrician. I have heard
“oh you are Dr. Bader’s sister, he is just a wonderful doctor or we love how he
has handled taking care of our children.”
I believe it! He has always been
a great caring brother. He is the one
that taught me how to start studying for tests in middle school. Of course it was a science test and he was
all into helping me learn the terms and I was so not in to it. I was probably
thinking about what I was going to say to Jill on the phone when we were done
“studying.” Of course I was a teenage
girl who spent most of my free time on the phone with my friends. And when I was not on the phone with them I
was with them in person.
A lot of people say that my brother and I are a lot
alike. We have similar body types and
similar faces. Honestly, when I started
growing hair again I saw a lot of Scott in the mirror when I looked in it. My brother has four girls. Several pieces of information to process
here:
Scott is a doctor and knows the trials and horrors of
cancer
Rachel (Scott’s sister) tests positive for the genetic test BRACA
Scott and Rachel share genes
Scott has four girls
Scott probably freaks out….I say probably because I have
never really seen my brother freak out.
He is pretty calm and relaxed.
Even when I was stuck in a tree and my dad was going to get a chain saw,
he was pretty calm. I on the other hand was freaking out (dad and chainsaw?)
I would say that my family was pretty much into sports
growing up. Aaron and I were carted
around to many different fields to watch our older brothers play soccer,
baseball, football, and basketball. I grew up loving basketball and played for a
long time. Then my love changed to
running. I joined in high school to get fit for basketball. The coach was amazing and although we had a small
team the girls were great. I created bonds with some amazing people. Some of these friendships I still hold dear
today. My girls actually have a
bookcase/doll house in their room that came from my coach’s daughter (thanks to
fb). Since the girls’ team was rather small (sometimes we didn’t even have
enough runners to compete, but we still ran) I became friends with a lot of the
boy runners. We had to share a bus to
the meets. I think the boy’s coach was a
pretty awesome coach as well. I am still
friends with some of the boys today. One
summer we all went to running camp. Who
goes to running camp? In high school I loved to run. I loved to run and my brother Scott couldn’t
understand my love.
Years later……Scott has become a crazy runner. He has run half marathons. He gets up before dawn to run miles in the
Georgia heat and humidity. He is one of
those people that I see when I leave for work that are running in the rain or
the snow. He probably has more running clothes than regular clothes. He is so crazy with running that he even
blogs about it. Who reads blogs about
running? Just kidding Scott.
So the point of this blog….my brother Scott will be
running the NYC marathon this fall for team Sharsheret. He is running this race because he wants to
run a marathon. He is on team
Sharsheret for many reasons. You can read
his page to get to know him better and see why he is running. However, if you
are reading this blog you already know one reason. He is running for me! Here is the sales pitch. I know the blog is
long but if I still have your attention, I ask that you make a donation
(whatever you can) to my brother’s page.
Clearly I can’t run yet (don’t have doctor’s clearance for physical
exercise) and I love to run. Eventually
I will be back out there, not sure if I will ever run a marathon so I will be
living vicariously through my brother this coming fall. Help me help him make that happen.
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