On the first lap,  I thought about that day the entire team of medical professionals came into my room after my MRI and told me I was cancer free.

On the second lap I thought about how painful the treatment had been the past few weeks about how I freaked out during surgery.

On the third lap I thought about how I reacted when I was first diagnosed, how scared and lost I was

By the fourth lap I was just thinking off all the nameless faces in the cancer center that I saw every week and if they all  will get the good news I got. A

For the rest of my laps I thought about the hope I wanted to give others. That there will ever be a day when cancer doesn't rip people's lives apart. Coming together as a team had been my idea and I was glad everyone was running the relay with me.

And now as I was trying to run the last few feet in the Closing Lap, I had lost my other teammates along the way.

My legs felt like lead but I  saw the row of purple balloons forming in front of me and I sped up  the best I could. It looked like I was in front of all my team mates when I  saw  Elias making his way in front of me his face twitching and  his breath labored.

“You okay ?” I asked him taking his arm

“Yeah,” he nodded even though I knew he was being strong. He was trying to impress Emily--who I was sure but she was kicking all of our asses. Elias and I made it to the final lap finish line together hand in hand. I wasn't too surprised to see Emily waiting for us there.

"51 laps," I announced to her

" I only did 43," Elias admitted

"That's okay," Emily said giving him a hug despite how much he was sweating.

“Why don’t you two make it official, already ?” I joked and looked at the rest of the runners coming in looking for our team

I saw the Sadie and Noah Bennett followed by Lila but where was the rest of their family  ?  They were followed by Constantine and Nina.

Where were those other two Bennetts ? They probably had some kind of fight mid-lap.

“Let’s take a picture,” Nina said as we saw the other two them coming closer and closer to us,"Right around these balloons,"

We all started to assemble as our little group was reunited.

“Turn around," she shouted

 I decided to let Elias stand  next to Elias and stood  in the center. On the count of three Sara took our picture of the back of our shirts.

In loving memory of  Darcy Bennett

1/31/1983 - 8/23/08

rest in peace, Brother.