When my son Ryan was in Kindergarten, since it was all new to me, I made sure to
  meet the other parents.  One mom stuck out at me, as she was pregnant 
too (I was 8 months pregnant with Owen), so I thought we could commiserate 
about having a kindergartener and a baby.  So Audrey and I were
 friendly,  as the years went on.  I would see them at school
 events and such.  One day I heard her little girl, the very same one
 she was pregnant with while I was pregnant with Owen, had cancer.

At a school event, I heard another child ask her how come her little girl
 didn’t have any hair.  Audrey ( a teacher besides an amazing mom), 
responded “oh, she has cancer, and the medicine makes her hair fall
out.  But she’s ok and her hair will all grow back.”  I told
 Audrey how much I admired her candor, and she told me that she’d rather they
ask and know the answer than whisper or be afraid.

I just can’t imagine the fear and heartbreak that goes along with 
that.  Audrey and her husband, Joe are amazing people, and we
 consider ourselves lucky to call them friends.

Ella’s treatment plan involved 43 weeks of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of
 proton beam radiation.  The proton radiation was administered at
 Boston’s Mass General, and is where the inspiration for Ella’s Retreat
 began.

Ella’s Retreat
 is a non-profit organization in the Philadelphia area, that helps provide
lodging and logistical support to 
families receiving proton radiation therapy at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).  The goal, is to reduce the stresses on the
parents, so that they can focus on fighting the disease.

These days, that adorable Ella is a happy, healthy 
outgoing kindergartener, in school with my
 Owen.  You can read Audrey’s account of
 treatment here.

Ella with her big sister at our Memorial Day Parade party Also, if you’re local, I hope you will consider joining Ella’s Retreat for a Night Out For Hope, on November 3rd.  Hillary writes at My Scraps.  A crafty mamma of two boys with a lifelong love of technology and all things social I’ve leveraged twenty years of business experience into an onlinecontent creation and social media strategies business.  I started my scraps as an extension of my scrapbook hobby.  Today it’s a dynamic place where all the scraps of my life come together – ideas, memories, products and opinions– on a range of topics that affect me as a wife, mother, daughter, friend and woman of the world .