Today's Tribute: Dana Ann Gong

Natalie, Naomi and Dana

Dana Ann Gong

September 11, 1970 - March 2, 2009

Five years ago today, the world lost a beautiful person, inside and out, and the heavens gained a bright new star. 

Dana and I met in 2004 at an adoption agency meeting. Though we didn't know each other at the time, we had both attended UC Davis, where Dana had earned an M.S. in Food Science. When I met her she was a Food Technologist with the National Food Laboratory in Livermore. She and her husband Lester were preparing to adopt a child, and had selected the same agency as we had for our adoptions. We were in the same adoption travel group in 2005, and became good friends. Our girls’ birthdays are just 4 days apart. We both adopted again a couple of years later, and our second daughters are also the same age. 

 

Naomi and Dana, 2008

Sadly, several months after coming home with her second daughter, Naomi, Dana was diagnosed with lymphoma. She was in and out of the hospital through the whole winter holiday season, fighting courageously. But cancer won the battle, and Dana passed away just days before Naomi’s second birthday. The idea of that beautiful baby, who had already lost her birthmother, growing up without the mother who had traveled to the other side of the earth to get her, broke my heart. Even though it has been five years since Dana left us, I think of her frequently. 

I can still see her huge smile and hear her laughing voice. When I was accepted to run for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team, I knew that I wanted to honor Dana's memory. 

Dana and Natalie, 2006

Throughout her life, Dana's giving spirit had led her to volunteer in several different capacities, including selling daffodils each spring for the American Cancer Society as a Daffodil Days Coordinator. When I learned that the Boston Marathon route would be lined with daffodils, my eyes welled up with tears - I know that every time I see those yellow flowers as I'm running, I will be thinking about Dana.

If you knew Dana and would like to leave a remembrance of her, we welcome your Comments below.

Running at altitude

We've been vacationing in Tahoe City, and since one of my good friends and her girls are staying with us, I've been able to get out and run! This morning there was a spectacular sunrise, which I strangely woke up just in time to photograph, and then I went back to bed for an hour! After I woke up for real, I enjoyed a lovely 4-mile run along Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River. Below are some photos of the scenery along the way.

 

Today's Tribute: Xiaoqing Cai

Xiaoqing Cai was born on February 19, 1964 in Chengdu China. She studied at the Foreign Languages Department in Sichuan University, where she majored in English language and literature. After earning B.A and M.A. degrees there, Xiaoqing came to United States as a graduate student in October of 1988 to attend Michigan State University, where she received her second M.A., in American Studies, in the spring of 1990.  

In 1990, after graduating from Michigan State University, she moved to San Rafael, California with Bill Baumeister, whom she had met while in Chengdu waiting for her visa to enter the United States, and got married. Xiaoqing worked as a preschool teacher for six years at the on-site day care of the Lucas Film Company at Skywalker Ranch. After the birth of her daughter in 1994, she began working for Bay Area Adoption Services as the China Program Coordinator to help American families adopting children from China. 

Xiaoqing was diagnosed with first stage breast cancer in May of 2007 and had a mastectomy. The same year in September, she lost her beloved father to lung cancer. Xiaoqing continued working for B.A.A.S. through these hardships, and helped us with our second adoption. She matched our family with a beautiful 18-month-old baby girl  in the summer of 2008.

Receiving the Community Service Award, January 2010

In September of 2008, Bill and Xiaoqing became the guardians of a 6-year-old boy whose adoption was disrupted after the adoptive family brought him to United States from China. Less than 6 months later, in February of 2009, she was diagnosed with local recurrence of breast cancer. Despite the changes to her family life that the addition of a young child entailed, and the difficulties of undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for her recurrent breast cancer, Xiaoqing continued to work tirelessly to join children in China's orphanages with families all over the U.S.  In January 2010, she received the Community Service Award from Families with Children from China - Northern California, in recognition of her amazing work to unite over 900 children (at that time) with their forever families. Later that same year, in October of 2010, Bill and Xiaoqing officially adopted their son Billy Baumeister, who is now almost 12 years old. 

Nearly 5 years after her chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Xiaoqing is celebrating her 50th birthday today.

Xiaoqing states, "I consider myself extremely lucky to have a loving family, many supportive friends and a job that brings me much joy and satisfaction. I have been working as an adoption coordinator for almost twenty years and have helped the adoption of over a thousand orphaned children from China into loving homes."

With her calm demeanor, kind eyes and ready smile, Xiaoqing is loved by all who know her. She has changed the lives of over 1000 of China's orphans and, by doing so, has a special place in the hearts of every one of the families she has helped create. Our family is deeply indebted to her, and we are honored to call her our friend. We celebrate her half-century of life today, and wish her many more decades of health and happiness.   祝您健康长寿！

10 weeks to go and over half-way to my $10,280 fundraising goal!

Ten weeks from today, I will wake before dawn and walk across the Boston Common to board a big yellow school bus for the hour-long ride to Hopkinton. I have kissed my husband goodbye on the Common twice before, and this time we will get to ride that bus together. After our arrival in Hopkinton, we will try to stay warm as we wait anxiously for the start. Although I love the design of the 2014 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team singlet, it will be hard to see the Boston skyline under the honor ribbons that will be pinned to mine. 

It seems that almost every day I meet another person who is fighting the battle of their lives, or who has lost someone dear. It is very humbling to receive donations in honor of so many wonderful people. With my practice's year-end donation of a percentage of proceeds from procedures, my fundraising total is now over $5,200, so I am more than half-way to my $10,280 goal for Dana-Farber. On days when it is cold and rainy, or I am exhausted from a long procedure at work, when I would rather plunk down on the couch and watch TV than train, I think of the people who want to run but can't, and I run. Yesterday, on mile 10 of a 13-mile training run in the rain, I tripped on a patch of uneven pavement and fell down. Thankfully I had on a long-sleeved shirt with thumb-holes, so my palms were protected from the asphalt (so I can still do surgery tomorrow!) but I landed hard on my right hip and shoulder, and for a moment after I got up I thought about calling it a day. I walked a hundred yards or so, towards the Whole Foods market, where I thought I might ask to borrow a phone to call my husband to pick me up. But as I walked, I decided to tough it out, and jogged (albeit more slowly than usual, and with a few walk breaks up the hills) the remaining few miles home. In my head I was singing one of my old favorite songs, "Minutes to Memories" by John Mellencamp, which contains the lines "So suck it up and tough it out, and be the best you can".

I'm pretty sore today, and my hip and shoulder are bruised, but I'm happy for having finished the run, and managed to get in a couple of miles after work today as well. John Mellencamp has written some wise words; another of my favorites is "Between a Laugh and a Tear": "Just try to live each and every precious moment, Don't be discouraged by the future, forget the past. That's old advice but it'll be good to you; I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past..."

My 13th 13.1-mile race

We've had very little rain here in Northern California for the past couple of months; normally the rainy season starts in November and is in full-swing by January.  With Tahoe's ski resorts dependent upon the snow for their income and those of us at lower altitude dependent upon the rainfall for agriculture, not to mention drinking water and other household uses, our Governor declared a state of Emergency about 2 weeks ago. However, the 4,300+ runners preparing for the Kaiser Permanent San Francisco Half Marathon must have had a "rain dance" effect, because we woke up to wind and wetness this morning! Edward and I were both supposed to run, but he's been battling a bad cold and bronchitis for a couple of weeks so a few days ago I canceled the babysitter and told him he was staying home! Good thing, because the dreary weather would not have been good for his immune system. Back in February 2009, the Kaiser Half was my first half marathon, and I ran it the weekend before we left for China to adopt our second daughter. I've run 11 other half marathons since then, but had not been back to do the Kaiser, so I really wanted to run it this year, despite the rain.

I woke up at 5:45am after a restless night (you know how you wake up every half hour or so, wondering how much time you have left before the alarm goes off? So frustrating!), had a small bowl of hot Grape Nuts, packed some Gu in my capris, and headed into the city. My Prius (not the most aerodynamic automobile) was getting blown around a bit as I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, but the wind didn't seem as strong once I was at Ocean Beach. I parked there and took one of the school bus shuttles into Golden Gate Park. I was happy to have my sweats and a hooded jacket on, but the sweats check turned out to be about a quarter mile from the starting line, so I ended up freezing anyway. Luckily they did have some plastic bags for people to take, so I wore one of those over my shirt as I walked to the start. A bunch of us huddled under the trees near the start, and I met a couple of girls from Boston, one of whom is running the Marathon for the Alzheimer's Association. Chatting with them helped pass the time, and helped me keep my sense of humor as occasional gusts of wind shook bundles of water from the trees over our heads and set us all shivering.

 














The sky was light by the time the race started, and the park looked beautiful. I wasn't going for a PR, and planned to take it pretty easy (since I got injured after my last half marathon in December!). I enjoyed the verdant surroundings in the park, but it was a shorter jaunt than I had remembered. I guess I forgot that the course went out into the city for quite a while, so that was an interesting change of scenery - the streets were closed for the race, and there weren't many spectators out, but we could see supporters up in windows along Fell Street.

We came back into the park on Stanyan, ran past Kezar Stadium (it's hard to imagine that the 49ers used to play there!), then eventually back onto Kennedy Drive and out to the Great Highway. I'd been running about 9:15-9:20 paces up until then. We had a strong headwind on the way out along Ocean Beach, which made for slow going, but I was happy because I knew that also meant we'd have a nice tailwind for the return! Near mile 7, I saw my friend Peter going in the opposite direction, already past mile 12 - he finished first in his age group with a fabulous 1:22:21. My slowest miles were miles 8 & 9, which I ran at 9:40 and 9:46 (respectively). Shortly after the turnaround near the SF Zoo, as I was enjoying that lovely tailwind, I saw my assistant Bridgit walking her dog Hurley, and this time I got to say "Hey, Bridgit!! Thanks for being out here!" She gave me a big thumbs up, which was a boost to my already happy spirits. I ran the last few miles at about a 9:10 pace, and finished in 2:03:23, with which I was pretty happy considering I was basically treating this like a training run. I saw my colleague again, which was fun, as we waited to get some treats after the finish line. In all it was a good race, a happy 5th anniversary half for me.

One-third of the way there!

I am happy to announce that I am 1/3 of the way to my goal of raising $10,280 for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge! I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me get this far: Thank you!!

My daughters ran more than 5 kids' races in 2013 with our running club, DSE Runners, so they each received a trophy at this Sunday's race. They were more excited than they look in this photo (taken after they had scootered the Rainbow Falls 5K)!

The Boston Marathon is 12 weeks away. I have been running 6 days a week and am feeling good. This weekend is the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon in San Francisco. 

It might be raining, but due to the drought I will welcome the rain, even though it might make for an uncomfortable 2 hours of running!

Today's Tribute: Verna Wefald

Verna Wefald

October 5, 1964 - August 30, 2010


 

I met Verna at our neighborhood park, when her daughter Maya was not quite 3 years old and her son Miguel was in 5th grade. Our girls would play together at the park, and we would chat and enjoy the sunshine. What struck me about Verna was her calmness. She always had a relaxed smile, and just emanated a positive vibe that said "everything will be ok".  Even though she appeared quiet, Verna was a force to be reckoned with! She had found out about her breast cancer in 2006, just a few days before giving birth to Maya. She endured her initial cancer treatment, stayed focused on being a great mom to her newborn daughter and her son, and became an advocate for others with cancer. In 2007, she organized a dance fundraiser for the Charlotte Maxwell Clinic, raising $3000 to help provide cancer treatment services to low income women. She climbed Half Dome in Yosemite National Forest three months later with the Bay Area Young Survivors, a group of women who'd been diagnosed with cancer under the age of 45. 

Verna and her husband, Steve (who grew up in CT and ran the Boston Marathon as a college student)

Unfortunately, in September 2009 Verna learned that her cancer had returned. She remained positive, dedicating herself to her family and focusing on beating cancer a second time. When it became clear that the battle could not be won, she spent her last months writing letters to her children, so that on every holiday, birthday, and other life events in their future, they will feel her love and know how proud of them she is. 

Verna died on August 30, 2010, at the age of 45. When I see her children, Maya and Miguel, her eyes and her smile shine through, and I know she lives on in the hearts of those who knew her.

Verna with Miguel, Maya and puppy Gigi

If you knew Verna and would like to leave a remembrance of her, we welcome your Comments below.