http://thebigcandme.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-fallen-star.html?showComment=1357679097965#c3829452807637665652 ~ for Debbi
A Too Sassy Gal ~ Debbi passed away early January, 2013
"Lakota belief is that death is a change of worlds. . . . When it's my time to go, it's my time to go." Russell Means
Russell
Means, who gained international notoriety as one of the leaders of the
71-day armed occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1973 and continued to
be an outspoken champion of American Indian rights after launching a career as
an actor in films and television in the 1990s, has died. He was 72.
Means died Monday at his home in Porcupine, S.D., his family announced on his website, russellmeansfreedom.com.
The nation's most visible American Indian activist, Means was a passionate militant leader who helped thrust the historic and ongoing plight of Native Americans into the national spotlight.
In joining the fledgling American Indian Movement in 1969, Means later wrote, he had found a new purpose in life and vowed to "get in the white man's face until he gave me and my people our just due."
Diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2011 and told that it had spread too far for surgery, Means refused to undergo heavy doses of radiation and chemotherapy. Instead, he reportedly battled the disease with traditional native remedies and received treatments at an alternative cancer center in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"I'm not going to argue with the Great Mystery," he told the Rapid City Journal in August 2011. "Lakota belief is that death is a change of worlds. And I believe like my dad believed. When it's my time to go, it's my time to go."
An Oglala Sioux born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Means in his activist prime was called strident, defiant, volatile, arrogant and aggressive. He was frequently arrested and claimed to have been the target of numerous assassination attempts.
A onetime con artist, dance-school instructor and computer programmer, Means was executive director of the government-funded Cleveland American Indian Center when he met Dennis Banks and other AIM founders in 1969.
In joining the American Indian Movement at age 30, Means later wrote in his autobiography, he had found "a way to be a real Indian."
In Cleveland, he founded the first AIM chapter outside Minneapolis, and he became the organization's first national coordinator in 1971.
In 1970, he was among a group of American Indian activists who occupied Mount Rushmore, where he infamously urinated on the top of the stone head of George Washington — an act he later said symbolized "how most Indians feel about the faces chiseled out of our holy land."
That November, he joined fellow AIM members and other Native Americans in taking over a replica of the Mayflower in Plymouth, Mass. And in 1972 he participated in the seven-day occupation and trashing of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C.
But the controversial and flamboyant activist with the trademark long braids gained his greatest notoriety at the trading post hamlet of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The occupation of Wounded Knee by more than 200 AIM-led activists began in late February 1973 in the wake of a failed attempt to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whose Oglala critics accused him of corruption and abuse of power and said his private militia suppressed political opponents.
After the takeover of Wounded Knee, the historic site of the 7th Calvary's large-scale massacre of Sioux men, women and children in 1890, the area was cordoned off by about 300 U.S. marshals and FBI agents, who were armed with automatic weapons and aided by nine armored personnel carriers.
Among the occupiers' demands were that congressional hearings be held to protect historical benefits held in trust by the U.S. government.
Before the occupation ended peacefully in May, two occupiers were dead and a U.S. marshal, who was paralyzed from the waist down, was among the wounded.
A federal grand jury reportedly indicted 89 people, including several AIM leaders, for federal crimes in connection with the seizure and occupation of Wounded Knee.
That included Means and Banks, who emerged, as a 1986 story in The Times put it, as "the two most famous Indians since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wiped out Custer nearly a century earlier."
Their widely publicized trial in 1974 on a variety of felony charges ended after eight months when a federal judge threw out the case on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.
On the 20th anniversary of the occupation in 1993, former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow told the Associated Press that the fighting intensified racism, bitterness and fear in the state.
Means saw it differently, saying it was the Indians' "finest hour."
"Wounded Knee restored our dignity and pride as a people," he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2002. "It sparked a cultural renaissance, a spiritual revolution that grounded us."
Tim Giago, the retired editor and publisher of the Native Sun News in Rapid City, S.D., takes a critical view of Means' militant methods as an activist.
"I think he could have accomplished 10 times what he did eventually accomplish, which was to bring focus on Native American issues, if he had followed the path of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi instead of turning to violence and guns," Giago, who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation, told The Times last year.
"If he had followed a peaceful demonstration like those two great leaders did, I think he would have had much more support from the American people that I think he lost when he turned to violence," Giago said. "As a matter of fact, he lost the support of a lot of Native Americans when he resorted to violence."
Historian Herbert T. Hoover, a professor emeritus at the University of South Dakota whose specialties include the history of American Indian-white relations in Sioux Country, described Means as "a force for good during the civil rights movement on behalf of American Indians."
"I don't think Russell should be remembered as a radical," Hoover told The Times in 2011. "Russell was somebody who simply wanted Indians to get their due in the civil rights period."
Means' 1974 trial wasn't the end of his legal troubles.
In 1976, he was acquitted of a charge of murder in the 1975 shooting death of a 28-year-old man at a bar in Scenic, S.D. He had been accused of aiding and abetting in the shooting for which another man was convicted of murder.
And in 1978, Means began a one-year prison term after being convicted of an obstruction of justice charge related to a 1974 riot between American Indian Movement supporters and police at the courthouse in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Through it all, he continued his high-profile activism.
In Geneva in 1977, he was a delegate to the "Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations of the Americas." As one of the main speakers, he urged the conference to recommend Indian participation in the United Nations and attacked the U.S. government.
"We live in the belly of the monster," he said, "and the monster is the United States of America."
In the mid-1980s, Means spent several weeks in the jungles of Nicaragua with the Miskito Indians in an attempt save them from what he said was "an extermination order" issued by Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government.
Means also tried his hand at national politics in the '80s.
In an attempt to bring the "world view of the Indian" to the American people, he agreed in 1983 to be Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt's running mate in Flynt's unsuccessful campaign for the presidency of the United States.
And in 1987, Means sought the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party but lost to former Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
Means' acting career began after he was approached by a casting director to play Chingachgook in the 1992 movie "The Last of the Mohicans."
A string of more than 30 other roles in films and television followed, including playing a shaman in "Natural Born Killers" and providing the voice of the title character's father in "Pocahontas."
Means' transition from activist to actor was deemed a natural one.
"Russell has always been very mediagenic," Hanay Geiogamah, who joined AIM in 1971 and co-produced a series of Native American TV movies on TNT, told The Times in 1995. "He was eloquent, capable of synthesizing complex political ideas for the press and, with his long black braids and statuesque physique, the image the media wanted to see.
"Russell was smart enough to realize that when you've got it, you've got it. He used the system … and used it well."
Oliver Stone, who directed Means in "Natural Born Killers," described him as "a renegade with one foot in both corrals, someone who has walked a crooked and strange life."
"He's a very authoritative presence with his own brand of magic," Stone told The Times in 1995. "Whether he's acting or not is hard to say."
Of his career as an actor, Means told The Times in 1995: "I haven't abandoned the movement for Hollywood. … I've just added Hollywood to the movement."
As he told the Washington Post a year later, "My life has been a life of passion, and I'm still a voice for traditional Indian people, for freedom-seeking Indian people."
Means was born Nov. 10, 1939, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. After his father landed a job in a Navy shipyard during World War II, the family moved to Vallejo, Calif., in 1942. Summers, Means would return to South Dakota to visit relatives on the reservations.
Means, who chronicled his life in the 1995 book "Where White Men Fear to Tread" (written with Marvin J. Wolf), continued his activism in old age.
In 2007, he was among some 80 protesters who were arrested after blocking Denver's Columbus Day parade honoring Christopher Columbus, an event they condemned for being a "celebration of genocide."
Asked if he was still active in the American Indian Movement in an interview in the Progressive in 2001, Means said, "As far as I'm concerned, as long as I'm alive, I'm AIM.
"We were a revolutionary, militant organization whose purpose was spirituality first, and that's how I want to be remembered. I don't want to be remembered as an activist; I want to be remembered as an American Indian patriot."
McLellan is a former Times staff writer.
news.obits@latimes.com
Means died Monday at his home in Porcupine, S.D., his family announced on his website, russellmeansfreedom.com.
The nation's most visible American Indian activist, Means was a passionate militant leader who helped thrust the historic and ongoing plight of Native Americans into the national spotlight.
In joining the fledgling American Indian Movement in 1969, Means later wrote, he had found a new purpose in life and vowed to "get in the white man's face until he gave me and my people our just due."
Diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2011 and told that it had spread too far for surgery, Means refused to undergo heavy doses of radiation and chemotherapy. Instead, he reportedly battled the disease with traditional native remedies and received treatments at an alternative cancer center in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"I'm not going to argue with the Great Mystery," he told the Rapid City Journal in August 2011. "Lakota belief is that death is a change of worlds. And I believe like my dad believed. When it's my time to go, it's my time to go."
An Oglala Sioux born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Means in his activist prime was called strident, defiant, volatile, arrogant and aggressive. He was frequently arrested and claimed to have been the target of numerous assassination attempts.
A onetime con artist, dance-school instructor and computer programmer, Means was executive director of the government-funded Cleveland American Indian Center when he met Dennis Banks and other AIM founders in 1969.
In joining the American Indian Movement at age 30, Means later wrote in his autobiography, he had found "a way to be a real Indian."
In Cleveland, he founded the first AIM chapter outside Minneapolis, and he became the organization's first national coordinator in 1971.
In 1970, he was among a group of American Indian activists who occupied Mount Rushmore, where he infamously urinated on the top of the stone head of George Washington — an act he later said symbolized "how most Indians feel about the faces chiseled out of our holy land."
That November, he joined fellow AIM members and other Native Americans in taking over a replica of the Mayflower in Plymouth, Mass. And in 1972 he participated in the seven-day occupation and trashing of the Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C.
But the controversial and flamboyant activist with the trademark long braids gained his greatest notoriety at the trading post hamlet of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The occupation of Wounded Knee by more than 200 AIM-led activists began in late February 1973 in the wake of a failed attempt to impeach tribal president Richard Wilson, whose Oglala critics accused him of corruption and abuse of power and said his private militia suppressed political opponents.
After the takeover of Wounded Knee, the historic site of the 7th Calvary's large-scale massacre of Sioux men, women and children in 1890, the area was cordoned off by about 300 U.S. marshals and FBI agents, who were armed with automatic weapons and aided by nine armored personnel carriers.
Among the occupiers' demands were that congressional hearings be held to protect historical benefits held in trust by the U.S. government.
Before the occupation ended peacefully in May, two occupiers were dead and a U.S. marshal, who was paralyzed from the waist down, was among the wounded.
A federal grand jury reportedly indicted 89 people, including several AIM leaders, for federal crimes in connection with the seizure and occupation of Wounded Knee.
That included Means and Banks, who emerged, as a 1986 story in The Times put it, as "the two most famous Indians since Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wiped out Custer nearly a century earlier."
Their widely publicized trial in 1974 on a variety of felony charges ended after eight months when a federal judge threw out the case on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.
On the 20th anniversary of the occupation in 1993, former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow told the Associated Press that the fighting intensified racism, bitterness and fear in the state.
Means saw it differently, saying it was the Indians' "finest hour."
"Wounded Knee restored our dignity and pride as a people," he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2002. "It sparked a cultural renaissance, a spiritual revolution that grounded us."
Tim Giago, the retired editor and publisher of the Native Sun News in Rapid City, S.D., takes a critical view of Means' militant methods as an activist.
"I think he could have accomplished 10 times what he did eventually accomplish, which was to bring focus on Native American issues, if he had followed the path of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi instead of turning to violence and guns," Giago, who was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation, told The Times last year.
"If he had followed a peaceful demonstration like those two great leaders did, I think he would have had much more support from the American people that I think he lost when he turned to violence," Giago said. "As a matter of fact, he lost the support of a lot of Native Americans when he resorted to violence."
Historian Herbert T. Hoover, a professor emeritus at the University of South Dakota whose specialties include the history of American Indian-white relations in Sioux Country, described Means as "a force for good during the civil rights movement on behalf of American Indians."
"I don't think Russell should be remembered as a radical," Hoover told The Times in 2011. "Russell was somebody who simply wanted Indians to get their due in the civil rights period."
Means' 1974 trial wasn't the end of his legal troubles.
In 1976, he was acquitted of a charge of murder in the 1975 shooting death of a 28-year-old man at a bar in Scenic, S.D. He had been accused of aiding and abetting in the shooting for which another man was convicted of murder.
And in 1978, Means began a one-year prison term after being convicted of an obstruction of justice charge related to a 1974 riot between American Indian Movement supporters and police at the courthouse in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Through it all, he continued his high-profile activism.
In Geneva in 1977, he was a delegate to the "Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations of the Americas." As one of the main speakers, he urged the conference to recommend Indian participation in the United Nations and attacked the U.S. government.
"We live in the belly of the monster," he said, "and the monster is the United States of America."
In the mid-1980s, Means spent several weeks in the jungles of Nicaragua with the Miskito Indians in an attempt save them from what he said was "an extermination order" issued by Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government.
Means also tried his hand at national politics in the '80s.
In an attempt to bring the "world view of the Indian" to the American people, he agreed in 1983 to be Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt's running mate in Flynt's unsuccessful campaign for the presidency of the United States.
And in 1987, Means sought the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party but lost to former Texas Congressman Ron Paul.
Means' acting career began after he was approached by a casting director to play Chingachgook in the 1992 movie "The Last of the Mohicans."
A string of more than 30 other roles in films and television followed, including playing a shaman in "Natural Born Killers" and providing the voice of the title character's father in "Pocahontas."
Means' transition from activist to actor was deemed a natural one.
"Russell has always been very mediagenic," Hanay Geiogamah, who joined AIM in 1971 and co-produced a series of Native American TV movies on TNT, told The Times in 1995. "He was eloquent, capable of synthesizing complex political ideas for the press and, with his long black braids and statuesque physique, the image the media wanted to see.
"Russell was smart enough to realize that when you've got it, you've got it. He used the system … and used it well."
Oliver Stone, who directed Means in "Natural Born Killers," described him as "a renegade with one foot in both corrals, someone who has walked a crooked and strange life."
"He's a very authoritative presence with his own brand of magic," Stone told The Times in 1995. "Whether he's acting or not is hard to say."
Of his career as an actor, Means told The Times in 1995: "I haven't abandoned the movement for Hollywood. … I've just added Hollywood to the movement."
As he told the Washington Post a year later, "My life has been a life of passion, and I'm still a voice for traditional Indian people, for freedom-seeking Indian people."
Means was born Nov. 10, 1939, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. After his father landed a job in a Navy shipyard during World War II, the family moved to Vallejo, Calif., in 1942. Summers, Means would return to South Dakota to visit relatives on the reservations.
Means, who chronicled his life in the 1995 book "Where White Men Fear to Tread" (written with Marvin J. Wolf), continued his activism in old age.
In 2007, he was among some 80 protesters who were arrested after blocking Denver's Columbus Day parade honoring Christopher Columbus, an event they condemned for being a "celebration of genocide."
Asked if he was still active in the American Indian Movement in an interview in the Progressive in 2001, Means said, "As far as I'm concerned, as long as I'm alive, I'm AIM.
"We were a revolutionary, militant organization whose purpose was spirituality first, and that's how I want to be remembered. I don't want to be remembered as an activist; I want to be remembered as an American Indian patriot."
McLellan is a former Times staff writer.
news.obits@latimes.com
Suzanne Imondi: A Passionate Advocate For Cancer Patients
By ERIC VO, evo@courant.com
Dr. Suzanne Imondi, 47, a South Windsor
resident, died on May 30 after battling an advanced form of breast cancer for
seven and a half years. After her diagnosis, Imondi, devoted her life to
fighting for better treatment and a cure for metastatic breast cancer.
(Courtesy of the
Imondi Family / July 15, 2012)
July 15, 2012
Dr. Suzanne Hebert Imondi, the mother of two children, was known for putting
her family's needs before her own. She was always ready to help her children,
Dominic and Grace, with homework or whatever they needed.
Michelle Huffman
July 15, 2012
HUFFMAN, Michelle Alexandra (Hand), 35, of New Cumberland, WV, formally of San Diego, CA, passed away from breast cancer on Tuesday morning with family at her side.
Born on October 1, 1976, in San Jose, CA, Michelle was the first daughter of Pauline A. Santa Cruz, of San Jose, CA and the daughter of Mark A. Hand, of Dallas, TX.
Michelle was a co-owner of Spicy Gringo's Mexican Restaurant located in Wellsburg, WV. In addition to spreading joy to the customers of her restaurant, Michelle took great pride in her adoptive community and was an avid supporter of the Relay for Life organization. In March, Michelle was chosen as the keynote speaker for the 2012 Brooke County Relay for Life Kick-Off Dinner.
In addition to her parents, Michelle is survived by her husband and soulmate, Alan G. Huffman; their two dogs, Cash and Ms. Mags; two brothers, Nicholas Hand and Matthew Bradley; a sister, Nina (Jerry) Turley, her nephew, Aidyn Turley; her in-laws, Gene and Eileen Huffman; brothers-in-law, Jimmy Huffman and John Anthony; and her sister-in-law, Darlene Anthony, who provided immeasurable support and guidance throughout Michelle's battle with cancer.
A private viewing will be followed by the scattering of her ashes over the Pacific Ocean.
A Michelle-abration gathering will be held on Sunday, July 22, 2012, beginning at 1 p.m. throughout the day until around 4 p.m. at the Bluebird Shelter located in Brooke Hills Park, Wellsburg, West Virginia.
'Queen of Clown Porn' dies aged 30 after brave public battle with
breast cancerBorn on October 1, 1976, in San Jose, CA, Michelle was the first daughter of Pauline A. Santa Cruz, of San Jose, CA and the daughter of Mark A. Hand, of Dallas, TX.
Michelle was a co-owner of Spicy Gringo's Mexican Restaurant located in Wellsburg, WV. In addition to spreading joy to the customers of her restaurant, Michelle took great pride in her adoptive community and was an avid supporter of the Relay for Life organization. In March, Michelle was chosen as the keynote speaker for the 2012 Brooke County Relay for Life Kick-Off Dinner.
In addition to her parents, Michelle is survived by her husband and soulmate, Alan G. Huffman; their two dogs, Cash and Ms. Mags; two brothers, Nicholas Hand and Matthew Bradley; a sister, Nina (Jerry) Turley, her nephew, Aidyn Turley; her in-laws, Gene and Eileen Huffman; brothers-in-law, Jimmy Huffman and John Anthony; and her sister-in-law, Darlene Anthony, who provided immeasurable support and guidance throughout Michelle's battle with cancer.
A private viewing will be followed by the scattering of her ashes over the Pacific Ocean.
A Michelle-abration gathering will be held on Sunday, July 22, 2012, beginning at 1 p.m. throughout the day until around 4 p.m. at the Bluebird Shelter located in Brooke Hills Park, Wellsburg, West Virginia.
- Hollie Stevens died in a San Francisco holding the hand of her husband - a month after their wedding
- She had put off having a lump checked as she had no health insurance
- Diagnosed with breast cancer last Spring and had left breast removed
- But cancer spread to bones, liver and brain
|
An adult film star known as the 'Queen of Clown Porn' has died after a public battle with breast cancer, aged just 30.
Hollie Stevens, from San Francisco, California, died while holding her husband's hand last Tuesday after the cancer spread to her bones, liver and brain.
Stevens, who married just last month, had performed in more than 170 films and was nominated for industry awards. She was also a pioneer of the niche genre, clown porn.
Passed: Porn star Hollie Stevens has died aged 30 after a
18-month battle with cancer that spread from her breast to her bones, ribs,
liver and brain. She was best known for her work in clown porn
But before her death, she said she hoped to be
remembered as a good wife and friend rather than for her professional
accomplishments.'I hope people know I’m always myself. I take pride in what others think may be weird about me!' she said, BoingBoing.net reported.
She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer last Spring and, after undergoing several months of chemotherapy, had her left breast removed.
Reports after her diagnosis noted that she had found a lump in her breast but put off seeking treatment as she did not have health insurance.
'I noticed it and paid attention to it, but going to the doctor is hard when you don't have insurance,' she had said.
Her friends, family and fans rallied around her, raising $16,000 for her medical bills.
'I cannot believe how many people care, how good my fans are, and how much complete strangers have helped me,' she said of the donations. 'This is unreal. Not everyone hates clowns after all!'
Among those heading the fundraising campaign was dominatrix January Seraph, who asked clients to donate money in return for extra time in sessions with her.
Wedding: Stevens married comedian and actor Eric Cash in
hospital just weeks before her death
Sense of fun: Her tweets in the days before her death
remain upbeat and good humoured
On her blog site 'missjanuary.com', Ms Seraph offered to provide half-an-hour extra bondage time to any client who made a donation of $50 towards The Hollie Stevens Medical Fund.
In July 2011, she said she was encouraging people to help Hollie out because her friend would never take the initiative.
She said: 'She's too proud to ask for help herself, so myself and her other great friends are being pushy and helping her out whether she likes it or not.
'Show Hollie that she's loved and appreciated in her time of need. Because no one should feel alone when they are ill.'
But in December 2011, the cancer was found to
have spread to her bones.
In March, a spot was identified in the actor's
leg and she underwent an operation in an
attempt to strengthen her leg and hip.
She had been regularly updating her fans on
Twitter and Facebook with snaps taken from inside the hospital, where she
appeared to remain upbeat and good humoured.
Images show her hooked up to drips and undergoing blood transfusions, while other messages noted how much she missed her new husband.
As well as working as a porn star, comedian and actress, Stevens also enjoyed painting and exhibited works in the Hyena Gallery in Burbank, SF Weekly reported.
Battle: Stevens initially put off having a lump checked as
she did not have health insurance. her family, friends and fans raised $16,000
for her medical bills
Cancerous cells were also found in her liver
and several new tumours were discovered on and near the initial site. She lost her battle on Tuesday July 3 in San
Fransisco as she held the hand of her husband, comedian and actor Eric Cash,
whom she married in hospital in June.
Images show her hooked up to drips and undergoing blood transfusions, while other messages noted how much she missed her new husband.
As well as working as a porn star, comedian and actress, Stevens also enjoyed painting and exhibited works in the Hyena Gallery in Burbank, SF Weekly reported.
NC Mom Who Lost Custody Got Kids Back for Final Month of Life
Alaina Giordano, 38, was able to spend her final weeks with her children thanks to an emergency motion her lawyer filed in Illinois family court, according to the Giordano's Facebook page, which announced her death on Friday.
The ABCNews Medical Unit and ABC11 in Raleigh, N.C., interviewed Giordano shortly after she lost her custody battle and once she knew the cancer had metastasized to her bones. She was getting treatment in Durham, where she didn't have a job, but her husband moved the children, then 5 and 11, to Chicago.
Alaina Giordano was denied primary custody of her two children partly because "the course of her disease is unknown" and "children who have a parent with cancer need more contact with the non-ill parent." She is pictured here with one of her two children.
"It makes no sense to take them away from me because you don't know how long I'm going to live," Giordano told ABCNews in 2011. "Everybody dies and none of us knows when. Some of us have a diagnosis of cancer, or diabetes, or asthma. This is a particularly dangerous ruling to base a custody case on a diagnosis."
She launched a Facebook page in April last year, generating media attention and the donations she needed to visit her children in Chicago, according to friend Peter Kaufmann's message to supporters on the social media site. She even camped out at Facebook supporters' homes when she visited her children in Chicago until she was able to afford an apartment there.
"Alaina endured a transient lifestyle that could have truly taken a toll on her health," Kaufmann said. "But the power of being near her children and relishing every last moment of her limited time with them gave her strength and optimism."
When it became clear Giordano's death was imminent and she would need to spend her remaining weeks in Pennsylvania at her parents' home for hospice care, her lawyer's initial attempt to bring her children to her failed. An emergency motion worked, however, and they stayed with their mother and grandparents in Pennsylvania.
Giordano died on Sunday and was buried on Friday.
"She never complained once about her circumstances, and faced her mortality with unwavering bravery," Kaufmann said. "Alaina taught me so much about selflessness, in the truest sense of the word -- as nothing she did was ever about HER -- but all about her children."
Rachel Cheetham Moro 1970-2012
"She died early this morning following a long struggle with metastatic breast cancer. Her blog enlightened and inspired many to think differently about breast cancer." She was a light that I looked to daily. ... her force, her wit, her compassion, the beauty of her soul...all will be sorely missed. Hoping that peace has been achieved.
Rachel's obituary and details of services (from CancerCultureNow)
Rachel Cheetham Moro, born August 2, 1970 in Perth, Western
Australia, died Monday February 6, 2012 at Riverview Hospital in Red Bank, NJ
after a courageous nine-year battle with metastatic breast cancer.
Rachel spent the first thirty years of her life in Australia graduating from University, qualifying as a Certified Practicing Accountant, teaching and building a small accounting practice in Perth. She had an acute quest for adventure that would eventually take her to visit more than 40 countries, and one day decided to go on a two year “walkabout” to see what the world had to offer. First stop was London where Rachel quickly found work as a CFO of a media company and built a network of friends including her beloved husband Anthony Moro.
In 2001, Rachel and Anthony moved to New York City where Rachel attended and graduated from Fordham University with Masters Degrees in Business and Tax. Recruited by Ernst & Young upon graduation in 2003, Rachel accepted an international tax consultant position at EY’s world headquarters in Times Square. Later that year, under the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Rachel and Anthony were engaged to be married.
Rachel was first diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2004. Multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments followed, with a short interim break for Rachel and Anthony’s beachside wedding, albeit during a late summer Jersey Shore Nor’easter. Completely bald from the chemo, Rachel joked that at least she didn’t have to fuss about her hair.
Confident treatment was successful, because everyone “survives” breast cancer, don’t they? Rachel and Anthony began to rebuild their lives. They built their dream house on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and settled in with Newman the Norwich Terrier always at her side. Rachel was renowned for her dinner parties where guests dined on her gourmet-quality cooking and laughed at her snarky view of the world delivered in her quirky Aussie accent. Out in the garden, Rachel’s green thumb was the wonder of the neighborhood.
Once again, however, life had other plans and the shocking diagnosis that cancer had returned and metastasized turned their world upside down and shaped the final years of Rachel’s life. Again, surgeries, chemo and radiation followed, this time with no end in sight. In between the treatment and the fatigue, Rachel discovered it was necessary to bring substantial change to the status quo in charitable giving to breast cancer advocacy organizations.
Rachel directed her fierce wit, eloquence and intelligence to the authoring and editing “The Cancer Culture Chronicles” (http://cancerculturenow.blogspot.com) where she both provided and found, true inspiration among the blog’s 100,000 readers. Rachel believed “it's time to move beyond pink ribbons” and messages of "breast cancer awareness" and start agitating for “real and meaningful action in the fight to eradicate this disease for good.” Another network of friends entered Rachel’s orbit throughout the process and they were enormously important to her as confidants and therapists over the last few years. Rachel’s advocacy has had tangible results that will continue to help women with metatstatic breast cancer until the day this terrible disease is finally cured.
Rachel is survived by her Beloved husband Anthony Moro III
and her faithful canine companion Newman; her mother Amanda Cheetham of Perth,
Western Australia; her father Anthony Cheetham of Caloundra, Queensland,
Australia and her brother Peter Cheetham, of Hilchenback, Germany. She is also
survived by mother-in-law and champion Felicia Moro and father-in-law Anthony
Moro Jr. of Monmouth Beach, New Jersey; her brother and sister-in-law Adam and
Jessalynn Moro and nephews Jayden Ristevski and Xavier Moro and niece Amelia
Moro. She is also survived by a number of dedicated medical professionals in
New York and New Jersey and an incredible network of friends on every continent
in the world.
There will be an open house for those who wish to pay their respects at Damiano’s Funeral Home in Long Branch, NJ on Friday, February 10 from 5 pm to 8 pm.
Friends and family are invited to a celebration of Rachel’s
life on Saturday, February 11 at McLoone’s Rum Runner Restaurant in Sea Bright,
NJ beginning at 12 noon with lunch followed by a service.
In place of flowers or food, the family requests donations
to be sent to further Rachel’s cancer advocacy at either of the two Rachel
Cheetham Moro Memorials established with the following
organizations:
Breast Cancer Action
55 Montgomery St, Ste. 323
San Francisco, CA 94105
METAvivor Research and Support Inc.
1783 Forest Drive #184
Annapolis, MD 21401
http://www.metavivor.org/METdonate.php
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Goodbye
February 6, 2012
Susan Niebur passed away on February 6, 2012 after a lifetime of love, crusades, and strength. Over the last five years she lived with inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer that presents without a lump. She chronicled her life with cancer here on her blog Toddler Planet with honesty and emotion that were even more rare and aggressive.
She is survived by her family, friends, achievements, and the indelible marks she made on people around the world. In lieu of flowers, please consider furthering Susan’s legacy through a contribution to the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Or please choose to make a difference somewhere, anywhere, to anyone.
I can’t begin to describe how her friends, those physically nearby and those she knew only on the internet, enabled her to carry on through five years of treatment and recurrence. Many of you have commented on Susan’s strength and grace, but these were traits that she pulled from all of you.
Thank you all,
Curt Niebur (WhyDaddy)
Toddler Planet is was written by Susan Niebur, four time cancer survivor, astrophysicist, and mom of two happy little 4 & 6 year old boys. Susan is was fighting metastatic breast cancer in her spine, neck, ribs, and hips, with chemo and pain meds, still looking for that "new normal."
Susan also wrote for pins and blogs about inspiring women in planetary science and the challenges and joys of mothering through cancer.
Susan's work was featured by Pinterest, Parents, Health, CNN.com, Fox 5 News, Today's Mom Blog, BlogHer, Bloganthropy, Edwards (CA), Notebook (AU), Washington Post Story Lab, and over 400 blogs helping raise awareness of inflammatory breast cancer -- cancer that kills without a lump.
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Rebecca Martin - passed in September, 2011
She is pictured here with her son Seth, who was 17 years at the time. She was a single mom. Rebecca did not die of breast cancer. She died of liver cancer. When it was initially diagnosed, it had already progressed to stage IV. Rebecca worked for me as a temp for nearly 8 months. She was kind. She was funny. She was a bit odd - but then again so is everyone who works with me. She was a talented artist. Being a small business owner, my office has a tendency to become part "day camp" during school holidays. On one of these holidays, Rebecca entertained my then 6 year old son (who was "into" his Hollywood monsters) with a pencil drawing of her interpretation of the Phantom of the Opera. He was thrilled. We still have that drawing. My son is now 11 yrs old. We will cherish that drawing, and the memory of Rebecca's smiling face.
Hello - please feel free to share. Thank you for checking in. I am sorry that it took so long for me to respond.
ReplyDeleteBest regards!