Battling and Celebrating with Team Teal

Marti, the mother of my good friend, Deb, is celebrating her birthday today, so I created this art journal page to say. . . Happy Birthday Marti!!!  Please join me in wishing her a good one!
Marti is battling cancer right now, so a few prayers to go along with those birthday wishes would definitely be appreciated.  Fortunately, Marti is surrounded by a loving family and "Team Teal" (a group of supporters who wear a teal cancer awareness bracelet in her honor), and we are helping her celebrate today.  The bracelet looks like this:

It speaks of hope, strength, courage and love.  And I wanted to share a story today of others who battled cancer and a celebration they enjoyed:

This very old layout documents the day in May of 2003 when we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday.  That's him on the far left.  He's surrounded by his compadres, a group of men who he met 45 years earlier when he and my mom moved to California, and who became life long friends.  Brilliant dancers and hard-drinkers, this group of men was rumored to have serenaded my mother with Mexican corridos while she was pregnant with me - as a way to apologize after they kept my dad out too late.  We spent many afternoons with their families, enjoying bar-b-que's and soaking in that warmth  of extended family which my parents no doubt missed, having moved away from all their brothers and sisters in Texas.
My father has his arm around Henry Jauregui, my son's namesake.  On this day, Henry was in the last stages of battling stomach cancer.  He had been bed-ridden for weeks and no one expected him to make it to the party.  But he did.  He pulled himself out of bed and came and sang and danced with his compadres one last time.  He made it to the celebration. Because that is the power of love.  And of hope, and strength, and courage, and faith.
Happy Birthday Marti.  May the powers of hope, strength, courage and faith take you to many, many more celebrations.
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To find the linky for Team Teal's posts, check out Deb's blog by clicking here.