A few years back I was invited to a City of Hope fundraiser by my Father in law. It was a beautiful event, there were hundreds of people. Tables were set up everywhere with silent auction items, raffle tickets were being sold, and areas to make donations were set up all over. This was the first City of Hope event I had been to. I had never known anyone who had cancer. When we sat down at our tables to eat, an open auction started with amazing donations.

This is where my naivete to what I was really there for came into place. As each item came up for bid, people were bidding hundreds of dollars over the asking price. I was shocked! Why did they bid so much? Didn’t they know they could get the item cheaper somewhere else? It never crossed my mind….

It wasn’t about the money.

But, for someone like me who lived in a bubble unaware of what cancer really was… I was stuck on the object not the objective. I could not understand why people were spending so much money. Two weeks following the event…..my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 uterine cancer.

My family was headed into a whirlwind of chemotherapy, mental therapy, and a change in the way we looked at life. What was something I had only heard about, was now my reality. I kept thinking that the City of Hope event must have been there for me for a reason. The guilt stayed inside me when I remembered my thoughts about wondering why people were spending so much money. I know now…. It wasn’t about the money…. It was about life.

The next year, I once again attended the same event. This time I humbly accepted my invitation. I proudly made my donations with love and compassion. As the speaker spoke, I cried uncontrollably. I now understood cancer. I cried for my mother and for everyone else going through this pain.

I did enter one raffle ticket… I thought I would do just one. Yes, I did win that raffle … A 35-inch television. It has been 15 years since my mom lost her life to Cancer. The television I won…. My lucky television still sits in my bedroom. It reminds me that regardless if I or someone I know is going through something hard we must have continuous empathy, support, and strength. We must raise our children to understand the feelings of others and not only ourselves.

We are in the is world together.

We can continue to be kind and smile often.

Remember it was never really about the money ❤️