I remember when PINK was just a color

This month being National Breast Cancer Awareness month has made me think a lot, especially about the PINK color. I remember when PINK was just a color, now it means so much more to me. I have to admit I have never really given the breast cancer PINK ribbon much thought, or donated money, or even let it penetrate my mind like it has this past year.

Every time I see a PINK ribbon I think about my 3 daughters, when they were little, I LOVED to do their hair, I tied it back or braided it and always finished it off with a ribbon bow, although the ribbon may not have always been PINK still the ribbons of October remind me of those days. Yes, those innocent days when I had no cares in the world, when the only thing I worried about was what was for dinner and if the clothes were washed. During those days our home was filled with PINK ribbons, PINK PJ's, PINK bikes, PINK,,PINK...PINK for my sweet girls, who I adored and still do. Yeah, that was when I thought PINK was just a color, a color that divided the boys from the girls.

This year as I attended the Breast Cancer Awareness race in Salt Lake City with my family, I thought about when racing and running for me were just for fun, when I didn't think about running for a cure, but was running without a care now it means so much more, we're racing time now hoping for a cure, holding tight to the thought that our children will not have to endure this terrible VILLAIN we like to sugar coat and call breast cancer. I was in a sea of PINK shirts that day, some honoring their grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts and friends who have survived the VILLAIN or who lost the battle, and too many women, way too many women like me who looked scared and lost as they wondered what the future will hold for them. On that day in May 2010, PINK took on a whole new meaning when I stood with thousands of survivors wearing our PINK matching shirts, with tears running down my cheeks, my bald head exposed all I could see looking into a crown of people was my family, with eyes focused on my girls and husband at that very moment PINK was no longer a color, but more like a new best friend.

I hope that PINK will become a color again, that the VILLAIN will lose the battle for all women when a cure is found, that for every race, walk and run we get closer to eliminating, and that with those races we all win.