WOMAN TO WALK FOR A MOTHER'S MISSED YEARS.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
She figures the little girl she knew named Jacqueline would be about 18 years old now, right around the same age as her son, Erik. The kids used to play together, back when. One morning a week, 10 young moms would bring their pride and joys over to the Mommy and Me play group at Sunland Park Sunland Park may refer to:
While the kids played, the moms took a little breather - compared notes on this challenging, exhausting new chapter in their lives called motherhood. What was it, 1983, when she first laid eyes on Laura Moore, Leah Shirokoff tries to remember Wednesday? Funny how the years all start to blend together when you get older, the baby boomer baby boomer also ba·by-boom·er n. A member of a baby-boom generation. Noun 1. baby boomer - a member of the baby boom generation in the 1950s; "they expanded the schools for a generation of baby boomers" boomer says. Sad how you can't seem to remember some of the best ones. ``Laura looked like Alice in Wonderland Wonderland See also Heaven, Paradise, Utopia. Annwn land of joy and beauty without disease or death. [Welsh Lit.: Mabinogion] Atlantis fabulous and prosperous island; legendarily in Atlantic Ocean. [Gk. Myth. ,'' Leah says. ``Long blond hair, beautiful smile, just so vivacious. All the kids loved her.'' Leah pauses, trying to bring back the faces of the kids in those sandboxes, including her own child's. It's a far cry from the face of the young man she kissed goodbye a few weeks ago as he headed off to the University of California at Berkeley (body, education) University of California at Berkeley - (UCB) See also Berzerkley, BSD. http://berkeley.edu/. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not /bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation. on a full academic scholarship. Go figure, Leah says. She's terrible with numbers, and her kid's majoring in physics. They promised to stay in touch after the Mommy and Me program ended at the park in late 1983, she says - promised to meet once a month or so to let their kids continue playing together while they caught up on their own lives. It was 1987, Leah thinks, right around the time their kids were 7 or 8, that Laura broke the news to her friends. That day, Leah Shirokoff says, she has no trouble remembering. It was like yesterday. ``The kids were skating skating: see ice skating; ice dancing; roller skating. skating Sport in which bladelike runners or sets of wheels attached to shoes are used for gliding on ice or on surfaces other than ice. and having so much fun when Laura said she had something to tell us,'' Leah said. ``She had breast cancer. ``She talked about her fears and the radiation treatments she was taking, but she was upbeat because the doctors told her they thought they had caught it in time.'' The women fought hard to hide the tears from their happy, playful play·ful adj. 1. Full of fun and high spirits; frolicsome or sportive: a playful kitten. 2. kids that day, Leah says, but they were crying hard inside. Whatever Laura needed, they said, all she had to do was ask. Whatever. Laura thanked them, and the day ended with hugs, kisses, and promises to meet again soon. But Laura never made it to the next moms meeting in the park. ``She died within three months of the time she thought she was cured,'' Leah says, getting ready to take her dog, Spirit, on another six-mile training walk Wednesday. She's getting in shape for next month when she will meet up with 3,000 other women - all of them with their own Lauras in their past. Together, they will walk 60 miles in three days, from Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. to Malibu, in Avon's Breast Cancer 3-Day The Breast Cancer 3-Day is a 60-mile walk for men and women who want to make a personal difference in the fight against breast cancer. 3-Day participants commit to fundraising, training, and dedicating an entire weekend to the cause. event. The bulk of the money these women are busy raising now from sponsors and friends will go to the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations, which is trying to increase women's awareness of the programs available now for early detection of breast cancer. ``If these early detection programs had been available for Laura, there's a good chance she'd still be alive today to see her daughter grow up, like I've seen my son off to college,'' Leah says. She fights back a few tears as she puts Spirit on a leash, and begins walking him up one of the trails near her Kagel Canyon house. ``After Laura died, her husband took Jacqueline, and they moved,'' she says. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. whatever happened to them. ``My greatest hope is that she'll read this and contact me. I want so much to tell her what a wonderful woman her mother was, how much she loved watching her little girl play in the park with the other kids.'' Tell Jacqueline how all the kids loved her mother. How they thought she looked just like Alice in Wonderland. If anyone is interested in making a pledge for Leah's 60-mile walk for breast cancer awareness, she can be contacted at (818) 551-2763. CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO Leah Shirokoff and her black-and-tan coonhound black-and-tan coonhound: see coonhound, black-and-tan. , Spirit, will be participating in a three-day breast cancer fund-raising walk from Santa Barbara to Malibu. Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Special to the Daily News |
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