Legacies of Passed Loved Ones

Tiffany Arias spent each afternoon after school at her grandmother’s house: “she was always feeding anyone who came through the door.

Jean Mackie has often felt powerless in the face of breast cancer. She has witnessed the disease take root in many friends and five years ago she never would have imagined it would take the life of her friend Racheal (for whom Runway SoCal began). When speaking about Rachael, Jean lights up saying, “Rachael was just plain fun. The world was robbed. She was kicking it and then suddenly, her life was done.”

For Laura Gromis, family has been at the center of her life for as long as she can remember. She grew up with her grandparents right down the street, so when her maternal grandmother, Dawn, was diagnosed with breast cancer at 55, it came as a shock. Receiving a single mastectomy and hormone therapy, the cancer went into remission, only to return later, requiring a second mastectomy and further treatment. It was at this time that Laura’s grandparents came to live with her family full time. The time spent together strengthened the family’s bond even further: “they were our only close family, so to us they were everything.”

Brian Schultz was in his young twenties when his aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her passing at just 57 prompted his mother to get a mammogram, which led to an immediate diagnosis of breast cancer at 52. Brian himself had just graduated college and delayed his trip out west to begin his job to stay and support his mother through her single mastectomy and recovery. A successful surgery meant his mother was cancer free and “the next 15 years were pretty normal in the world of someone living with cancer- the will it come back? was certainly there- but she was otherwise healthy.”

It’s hard to believe Lily Hsin is only 10 years old. Gregarious and well-spoken, she smiles when asked if she is ready to take to the runway by herself in her home of Southern California this January. She, of course, has some runway experience. She rocked the New England runway with her parents, Ricky and Melissa this past fall. She’s ready to do it all over again in honor of her Aunt Rachael, who passed away of breast cancer when Lily was young.

Walk into the Runway offices in Newburyport, MA and you’ll be greeted by a pink neon lit sign that says KEEP DANCING. It’s a tagline that embodies so much about our organization, but most don’t know it’s origin: “About a year or two prior to my mom’s death, Lee Ann Womack’s ‘I Hope You Dance’ became a song she loved,” says Kristin Achtmeyer. Indeed, the spirit of the song- to continue moving through hard times- has been a theme for Kristin and her family since her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis.