This blog post will be the third time I have written in first person on See Beautiful. While it is seminal that See Beautiful remain a space for humanity to come together and define and create beautiful, there are rare times where my writing, shared with this amazing See Beautiful community, warrants first person. This is one of them.
Just a few short months ago I was a college professor of
Early Childhood Education at Georgia State University. One of the greatest gifts of that job was to work with preservice teachers. I had the honor of teaching, and learning from, hundreds of future teachers. Last semester a student by the name of Tim Human crossed the threshold into our six-hour (that's right, folks, six-loooooooonnnnnngggggg hours) literacy class. Stating the obvious,
Tim's going to be an extraordinary teacher. Congratulations to the parents who are lucky enough to have their children in his class. But this post isn't one for raving about the awesomeness of my former students (because I could fully dedicate this entire blog every day forever to that). This post is about Tim's wife,
Romie. Tim talked about his wife in class on a regular basis. Part of this reasoning was because
Romie was a short semester behind Tim in the same program preparing to be a teacher. The other part is because their marriage is awesome and they have a beautiful respect and love for each other that just oozes out of him. I know about this kind of marriage - I'm lucky enough to have one.
On September 24, 2013,
Romie was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
Romie had to take a leave from her studies at GSU where, instead of studying to become a teacher, she'll be fighting a fight no one should have to weather. In two days
Romie starts chemotherapy treatments and the Human's life continues to unfold with uncertainty not unveiled the day you take your wedding vows.
Over the past week I've had the honor of connecting with
Romie.Two words come to mind: BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. But there's more. In the face of adversity, she helps
others smile. In the face of uncertainty, she's inspiring
others. In the face of sadness, she's dolling out comforting, kind uplifting words to
others. With every reason and justification to shut down and shut out the world, she's opening her arms and welcoming
all.
In a short time I've been honored to see a glimpse of the woman
Tim talked about in class. And as a company that is foundationally built on helping others see beautiful, you know I'm not going to sit back and do nothing. So let's support
Romie, and
Tim, and make this trek a little easier for them.
Romie's family and friends have started a fundraiser through
Give Forward to help alleviate some of the medical expenses associated with walking this road of cancer. Every single dollar helps, so let's help 500 times. For every comment here, every new like on Facebook, every new follower or Twitter, every new everything, we'll donate a dollar to
Raise for Romie (up to $500). NOTE: There's an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach when companies do these gimmicky you-like-we'll-give kind of things, so please know that we're sending $500 their way regardless. The hope with the "for every like" thing is to generate even more of an awareness for
Romie's awesomeness so others might want to join in and donate themselves. So there you go, comment below and we'll give (we're giving regardless), join us on Facebook and we'll give, follow us on Twitter and we'll give...you get it...or you can go to
Romie's "
Raise for Romie" page yourself and show
Romie and Tim you're behind them in this fight too.
Romie, thank you for helping me see beautiful. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Kindly,
Lydia
President of See Beautiful
Donate directly to Raise for Romie
HERE.
