Thinking pink!

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the passing of one of my favorite cousin Monica Bonita White Volz. She lost her fight with breast cancer. I remember when she first told me she had been diagnosed, I was crying and so angry and she was so positive. She spun everything to comfort me, I remember she decided to get a double mastectomy, and was excited because with her new boobs she wouldn't have to wear a bra. Monica was the cousin that named us all, including our kids ( well she at least approved the names, lol ). Monica use to take us to the club ( so of us were not of age ) but she was older, but never treated you like you were younger, always as an equal. I actually became a gin drinker because of her, lol. Her signature drink was a dirty Sapphire martini straight up, I remember one of the best nights the "cousins" had was the weekend before she started chemo. Me, my sister Nivia, my cousin Angie, Eve and Sandy, I think....anyway we all wanted to celebrate her and get her trashed. I remember we ended up at some dump in Buckhead called Bell Bottoms. The whole night between shots, she drank dirty gin martinis, I finally asked her why that was her drink and she said " It makes me feel like a lady". We all crammed into my cousin Angie's land rover after we shut the club down, driving home drunk we all laughed and cried because we all couldn't help but think she is so young or this could be us. Through the whole this I never saw her negative, but she was kinda reluctant to let us know when it came back the second and third time. It was devastating when she died, because she never told us how sick she really was, I see now she was trying to protect us. I remember a year or two after she died my doctor found a lump in my breast and wanted to run some extra tests to be sure, the panic that went through me was unreal, but it turned out to be nothing. I am a supporting of breast cancer anything along with the "cousins" we all get checked out and run races and donate time and money. We have to find a cure and bet this. Maybe I will create a Sapphire cocktail for her called Think Pink! Always in motion Keyatta