Gretchen with her husband Phil
Three weeks ago, I asked you to pray for my friend Gretchen Skeldon, a 4-time cancer survivor who was hospitalized with some serious health problems. I received so many emails and comments about Gretchen that I wanted to let you know our prayers have been answered, although not the way we hoped they would be.
Gretchen died peacefully at Hospice Wednesday morning. The fact that this was Ash Wednesday was not lost on the people who knew Gretchen as a devout and faithful Catholic. Gretchen’s belief in God, and her unwavering faith that He has a plan for all of us helped her get through some very trying times and I hope it helped take some of the fear away in these final days. But the selfless way Gretchen lived her life every day has always inspired me and so many others.
She sang the national anthem at the 2009 Rockets for the Cure game
Because she was so young when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and because she battled it with such grace, I asked her many times to talk to other young women who were newly diagnosed. She always made the time to offer her support and share her experiences with them. She also volunteered countless hours to raise money and awareness for breast cancer through NW Ohio Komen. She never shied away from an opportunity to help and truly believed a cure would be found in her lifetime.
Something I find so amazing about my friend Gretchen is her ability to reach and teach people even in her last vulnerable days.
This is the picture Gretchen wanted the doctors and nurses to see
As her health started to deteriorate, Gretchen shared with me that she was concerned her nurses and doctors would not know “the real me. They only see a bald, sick-looking invalid lying in this bed. They don’t know that two months ago I was a normal person!” I promised her they would know the real Gretchen and in her last few days when groups of doctors and nurses would come into her room at UTMC and she couldn’t talk for herself, I would point to a beautiful picture of Gretchen on the wall and say “Before you start your exam, let me properly introduce you to my friend, Gretchen. She is a vivacious, incredible person–beautiful inside and out. She is a mom, and a wife and a friend and she wanted to make sure you knew she was a normal person before she ended up in that hospital bed.”
They would all take a good long look at Gretchen’s beautiful face and and nearly every one of them thanked me for reminding them of that important lesson. I kept thinking to myself “Gretchen can’t even talk and she’s still teaching people and inspiring people to be better.”
Her last selfless act: to donate her body to the scientists at UTMC. It was her hope that by studying her body, doctors will discover something that will help the next woman with breast cancer survive.
Breast cancer brought Gretchen to me in 2003, the year the NW Ohio/Komen Race for the Cure was run “In Celebration of Gretchen Skeldon.” Today, breast cancer took my dear friend away. But Gretchen leaves behind a legacy of giving and love that most of us can only aspire to. Our world will forever be a better place because she was here. Goodbye, dear Gretchen.
