#BattleTogether - July 9th

For those scoring at home, Beth has cried on 39 separate occasions today. Each time she picks up her phone and starts to browse her Facebook messages or check her email or look through her texts, she is overcome by emotion from all of the kind, loving and thoughtful messages of support.

The hashtag #BattleTogether was stolen from one of the teams I work for. The Cavaliers Operating Company owns and operates an AHL Minor League Hockey Team, the Lake Erie Monsters. They are the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL.  At the start of the playoff we created a hashtag for the postseason of #BattleTogether. It implied that the entire city of Cleveland was united and rallying together as our team on the ice fought through the playoffs. The team eventually won the Championship and it was amazing thing to see #BattleTogether take on a life of it’s own and help bring home the Calder Cup.

Shortly after Beth’s cancer spread and she was faced with an enormous uphill battle, I adopted the hashtag #BattleTogether because we knew that this was what was really happening; we all were battling this cancer together, even though many of you are hundreds or even thousands of miles away. I was touched today when I was randomly browsing though Instagram and saw one of Caroline's friends from Indiana had #BattleTogether in her profile bio. We can feel your support as you champion us on to get us through this time. You will never know how much strength and energy your thoughts, prayers, letters, phone calls, texts, Facebook messages (and Facebook Pokes, Rob Laycock), packages, visits, steaks, acts of service, etc gives us. So, yesterday and today we have been reminded over and over again that our friends embody what it means to #BattleTogether.  Thank you!