Garcia Media Life

The one and only Brenda Box

I am so psyched and happy to say that I’ve signed up to participate in a 5K Walk, June 15^th, benefiting Purple Stride, an organization dedicated to fighting pancreatic cancer, which claimed a much beloved colleague and friend earlier this year.

Brenda Box was the afternoon editor with NPR’s Newscast unit.  A kinder, warmer, funnier, sharper, smarter journalist-human will never be found.   Here is a tribute to Brenda from a few months back.   Accomplishing this 5K for her and in her memory is going to be very special to me.   As Brenda’s health deteriorated last year, I developed a few complications of my own.  It bonded us a bit more than most, I think.  The very day I had an endoscopy this year that would find the cancer in my tummy that I’ve had to deal with, was also the day of Brenda’s memorial service which I proudly, if woozily, attended (they put you out for an endoscopy).

I walk about a mile a day now.  Basically, to complete a 5K you take about 4,800 to 5,000 steps.  I can easily handle about 2,400 currently.  But I’ve got two weeks to build up to it.  I can do this.  It’s one hour of walking, for Christ’s sake.

One of the reasons for 5K walks like this, of course, is to raise money for the cause.  Here’s a link if you would like to sponsor my walk.  The group I’m with at Purple Stride is called the Boxtops.  I would be very proud to raise money for any organization dedicated to the fight against any cancer.

I’m doing this for Brenda because I will always love her.  And I’m doing it for me so I can prove to myself that I can take 5,000 steps six weeks after major cancer surgery.  In some silly way, I feel like I’m taking the torch from Brenda, and having been given the gift of a curable cancer, that I am literally finishing the race for her.  That will be her gentle push at my back.  And her prankster foot I dodge in her ill-fated attempt to trip me.  I’m on to you, Brenda.