[HeartStrongList] Remembering Peg McDargh

[heartstrong at heartstrong.org]

In our flurry of activity doing HeartStrong work and preparing for our
Outreach/Educational trip to Texas which begins next week, we were deeply
saddened today to learn of the passing of HeartStrong Friend and
supporter, Peg McDargh.

We met Peg in 2001, when she attended a HeartStrong Educational Forum at
Ohio University in Miami, Ohio.  She hosted us and even took us out to
dinner which was greatly appreciated as that rarely happens.  She
immediately understood the work of HeartStrong and understood the
importance of support both emotional and financial.

Throughout the past 8 years, like so many of you, Peg was a faithful
supporter.  She would often send emails or snail mail notes giving us
encouragement.  It is a long, lonely, dusty road that we have been on for
13 years and those things are so wonderful to us.

Some of you know her but many do not.  However, I was so moved by the
letter she left for those of us who knew her that I have felt compelled to
share it.  Her family has given permission for us to share it.

We have decided to name our upcoming outreach trip in Peg's honor.  So it
will be worked on as the Peg McDargh Memorial Outreach/Educational Trip.

May all of us have the opportunity to live and leave this life with grace,
humility and kindness as Peg did.  We get to live forever by the memories
we leave behind, the lives we have touched, the hope we have given others
and love that no one can forget.

Marc Adams
Founder/Executive Director
http://www.heartstrong.org
marcadams at heartstrong.org

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Dear Family and Friends,


When I returned from the hospital in Columbus after an
emergency colonostomy in August because of a colon blockage, I was
given a max of three months to live and a minimum of three weeks.

I have spent this time with my family and friends.  We have been able to
spend together our last Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fall, January and
February
birthdays. We have all learned to know each other better, to share our
lives and activities.

I became an Appalachian Hospice patient.  The best thing I could have
done! If a friend or relative or you find yourself in a terminal situation,
Hospice is the place to be.  And they have helped me keep abreast
of the progress of the disease. They are wonderful, caring, helpful people.

So - as you can see, once again I beat the odds! And here I am seven months
later, writing catch-up. When the time comes, my body will start to prepare
to shut down for its future as a teaching tool for Ohio University med
students.  When the letter of acceptance came from OU, my kids teased me;
"You've been accepted to Med School!"

I wanted to share with you that this has been a totally wonderful learning
experience - not to be feared. Family and friends and strangers have been
supportive. My close family has become closer.  They have been sharing and
talking. How differently they see things at their different ages.  Folks I
never really got to know well I have been able to hold friendly
conversations with, learning more about them, helping them to see the
difference between being BORN into the world and being BORNE out of it.
And, most of all, I am learning, too.  We are teaching each other.

I hope that these notes I have been writing to you over the past several
years have been of value to you and have helped to enable you to see the
experience as one of personal growth as I have learned to accept and
understand each stage, and to experience the need to allow others to be
relied upon for support through their many kindnesses.

Fondly --- Peg