BY SANDE SNEAD
It’s a small, small world. I’ve said that so many times. I know you have, too.
I think Disney coined it, as in “It’s a small world after all.” I am a born and raised in Richmond, Virginia girl so I see people I know here ALL the time. I run into my own mother, sisters, cousins, aunts, etc. in unexpected places. But what about when I am out of town or headed out of town. What are the chances I will see someone I know, not just well, but VERY well?
Chance encounter with Sean McGrath on the Embarcadero in San Francisco.
A few years ago, I was visiting my daughter at Berkeley and crossing the street to the Embarcadero in San Francisco, I saw Sean McGrath, the brother of Kelly, our “fourth” sister, my sister’s former roommate and best friend of all time. There were 16.5 million visitors in San Francisco in 2012, and I ran into a very good friend while crossing the street. Another recent encounter happened when I got on a 707 plane at RIC, and out of 700- some people, I am seated next to my very best friend’s husband. I insisted that we call her to tell her that there really wasn’t anything going on between Mitch and me just in case the plane went down.
Fast forward to the present. A dear friend and Virginia Press Women member loses her husband to a brain tumor. He was a wonderful and active man who loved tennis, traveling and his family most of all. The obituary asks that “in lieu of flowers” donations be made to the Cullather Brain Tumor Quality of Life Center. I make a small donation and think to myself that I have never heard of this place, nor will I probably ever hear about it again.
The next day, Rhudy & Co., a company that I have recently begun doing freelance work for, asks me to work on communications and marketing for for their client Bon Secours Richmond Health Care Foundation’s Cullather Center, which is in the running for Richmond’s Amazing Raise.
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In 1992, Jack Cullather and his wife, Jean, lost their son, Chris, to a brain tumor. About a decade later, Jack lost Jean to a brain tumor as well.
I met Jack a few years back at a James Madison University homecoming where he was tailgating with his daughter, Maribeth, and her husband, Tommy Carr, who I went to JMU with in the 1980s. My boyfriend, Martin, knew Jack through golf and other social circles. Following that initial introduction, Martin and I ran into Jack many times at Azzurro, one of Jack’s favorite restaurants and more and more lately, one of ours as well.
I knew that Jack had tragically lost his son, and then later, his wife to brain tumors, but I didn’t know that he had started the Cullather Brain Tumor Quality of Life Center to honor their memory in 2007.
Now that I am helping Rhudy & Co. develop communications and marketing to help the Cullather Center compete during the Community Foundation’s Amazing Raise, it has become personal. This is not just a job; it’s a mission.
Sometimes people come in and out of our lives and they may seem like random encounters, but the older I get, the more I believe Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s quote that hung in my parents’ kitchen growing up, “I am a part of all that I have met.” Now, I am a part of the Cullather Center and this amazing place dedicated to helping patients and their families dealing with the devastating diagnoses of a brain tumor.
Please join me in supporting this most worthy cause and the patients who receive this unthinkable diagnosis during the Amazing Raise Sept. 18-19. We have set our sights on winning an extra $2,500 by being one of 15 non-profits to get 50 unique donations of $50 or more at 6 a.m. sharp on Sept. 18. Set your alarm and go to http://www.bsvaf.org/amazingraise and Click for Cullather.