News story on my family...I am so HUMBLED!!!

Wow...I cannot believe it. Unbeknownst to me, my sister Megan wrote a beautiful Mother's Day letter to WDIV, Detroit's NBC affiliate. She is such an incredible person...I feel so humbled. Well, WDIV called and asked to interview me.

The NICEST folks at WDIV, Karen Drew and her camera man Ted, spent about an hour with me this morning. They are such lovely people...so kind. The story will air at 11:00 est on WDIV, channel 4 here in Detroit tonight (Friday).

Here is the teaser: http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/23491496/index.html

Pay no attention to the date stamp on the above photo. If this was actually taken in 2003, I would only be 19 years old. lol

Here is the letter that Megan wrote :

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and I want to share a great “mom story” with you. It involves a native Metro Detroiter and her Breast Cancer journey that brought her back home.

My sister, Maureen Moons, is a 44 year-old single woman who wanted to be a mom, so she adopted her children from Guatemala. She has a son who is 7 and a daughter who is 4. Her daughter had only been “home” for 10 months in October, 2008 when my sister learned she had Breast Cancer. The news was grim…Stage 3C Invasive Ductal Carcinoma that also invaded her lymph nodes. She was approved to be part of a clinical trial, using new drugs to fight her particular kind of cancer. She went on medical disability from work and began treatments almost immediately.

Maureen (a.k.a. Mimi) is the 5th child in our family of 6 girls. Our parents only planned on having 4 kids, so Mimi and I were “blessings” to them. She moved from Birmingham to Dallas in 1989 after graduating from Walsh College in Troy. In Dallas she made many friends who became her family-away-from-home. They were there for birthdays, sick days, holidays, etc. And when she was diagnosed with cancer, they became her day-to-day caregivers. My other sisters and I would fly to Dallas to be with Mimi for major medical tests, procedures, treatments and to help care for her children, but we are scattered all over the U.S. and couldn’t be there every day.

Being the incredible mom she is, Mimi has always put her children first and tried to insulate them from the torture of cancer. Throughout this journey she has not skipped a beat when it comes to caring for her kids. She still took them to the State Fair, went on vacation, took them fishing, worked in the classroom, attended church, etc. She kept a blog to journal her experience and titled it “Raising Children…Razing Cancer” (http://www.moonsfamily.blogspot.com/). The title says it all.

After 8 months of chemotherapy, Mimi had a double mastectomy and lymph node resection on May 5, 2009. Her recovery was amazing…she was sitting up in bed and chatting with friends only hours after surgery. Within 2 days she was home from the hospital, after a stop at a local Mexican joint for lunch and a margarita! In no time at all she was back on her feet, exceeding doctors’ expectations and amazing everyone who knows her. Her next leg of treatment included 7 weeks of daily radiation, which finished in July, 2009. A combined family reunion & birthday party for Mimi took place at the end of July in Michigan and it was quite a celebration!

Within 2 days of returning to Dallas Mimi called me and shared some great news… she decided to move “home” to Detroit, after being gone for 20 years. She understands the importance of family and raising her children with their cousins, who live close-by. Her employer transferred her sales job to the Detroit market and she moved in September, 2009.

She continued chemotherapy treatments, transferring to the Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit. Her last session is May 10th. On May 12th she leaves for Washington, D.C. to be part of the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Panel. She was invited to meet with scientists and review proposals for Breast Cancer Research funding.

What I most admire about my sister is her tenacity. She looked cancer in the eye and said, “You picked the WRONG person to mess with!” (see blog post December 27, 2008). Her doctors initially gave her a 60% chance of recurrence upon diagnosis. This percentage has decreased to a possible 10% chance of recurrence because of her positive attitude, sense of humor, dedication to healing and overall refusal to let cancer define her.

Mimi and I will be walking in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure (Team Moonwalkers) in August, and I look forward to every step of our 60-mile journey!

I would LOVE to share Mimi’s story with your viewers. Do you have any type of Mother’s Day celebration planned? If there is a “Best Mom” competition…I have your winner! I’m contacting you specifically because I think this is a great home-town story of someone returning to our city and state.

Best regards,

Megan Moons-Grattan

Thank you for checking in on me...and for your loving support...and for caring about me and my family.

xoxo