By June Mathews
For The Tribune
CLAY — Elizabeth Pridgen will never forget the week of Jan. 19, 2009, though the Clay resident spent much of those few days in a haze of shock and grief. That Monday, her sister, Erika, was in the hospital, dealing with complications following a bone marrow transplant, when word came that Erika’s husband had died unexpectedly.
“She called me at work screaming and crying,” Pridgen said. “She was devastated.”
Two days later, arrangements were made for Erika to be temporarily discharged so she could attend her husband’s funeral the following morning. That night, the sisters stayed up late crying, laughing and reminiscing.
Elizabeth Pridgen, left, and her sister Erika shortly after Erika was first diagnosed with cancer
submitted photo
“I finally tucked her into bed, gave her a kiss and a hug, and asked her to please get a good night’s sleep,” Pridgen said. “Little did I know that would be our last conversation. She went to heaven in the early morning hours of Jan. 22. I found her ‘sleeping’ around 6:20 a.m.”
Though she had lost other family members and friends to cancer and seen others survive, Pridgen was deeply affected by the loss of her younger sister to issues associated with treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In her grief, Pridgen became determined to make Erika’s battle with cancer count, and in the ensuing months, she began casting around for a way to do that. Then she attended her first American Cancer Society Relay For Life event.
“I was still emotionally numb, still broken, still hurting and frankly very angry that my sister, my best friend and confidant was not in the here and now to grow old with me, the way we’d planned,” she said. “She was a fighter, she had endured years of chemo and radiation and surgeries and two bone marrow transplants, yet she was gone.”
But Pridgen’s trip to a Relay For Life event in Moody with her aunt (a breast cancer survivor), a cousin and her aunt’s friend proved to be a revelation.
“We had never heard of Relay For Life,” she said. “We arrived, and at first I thought it was silly. A carnival or festival atmosphere for cancer? Are you kidding me? But before we knew it, we were having a great time.”
Then came the inspiring luminaria ceremony, a part of every Relay For Life event, a time set aside for honoring those fighting cancer and remembering those who have lost their battles with cancer.
“I was humbled as I cried and remembered my sister, and I knew that hundreds of other individuals lost to cancer were being remembered and that those fighting cancer were not forgotten,” Pridgen said. “And I knew I could take my pain, my anger and my resentment, and I could make a difference in the lives of those touched by cancer. So I contacted the local East Jefferson Relay For Life, and I have not looked back. I’ve been on a team every year since and on the local Volunteer Steering Committee for the past three years. I am bound and determined for others in our community to know what Relay For Life is about.”
In a poignant twist, Pridgen learned that one of the research drugs that had extended her sister’s life for two-and-a-half years was funded by an American Cancer Society research grant, meaning Relayers like herself had afforded her some precious time with her sister that she might not have had otherwise.
“Relay is a time when we all gather in hopes of finding a cure, support survivors and remember our loved ones,” Pridgen said. “I Relay for those who no longer can. I Relay so maybe one day no one will have to Relay because we will have a cure.”
Relay For Life of East Jefferson will take place on The Mall in Trussville on May 16 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The event is free to the public and will feature entertainment, kids’ activities, vendor tents and onsite fundraisers.
For more information, visit www.RelayForLife.org or the Relay For Life of East Jefferson’s Facebook page.
