My Aunt Cathy was one of the people I was closest to as I grew up. She was my Godmother, and she played a big part in my childhood. I was 16 when she passed away, and I’m 26 now. Despite having lived a full decade without her, I remember vividly all the little details of who she was to me.

Aunt Cathy gave the BEST Christmas gifts. She somehow always knew exactly what I wanted, and she would buy me so much every time. CDs, posters, books, toys, video games, she really stayed in-the-know with all my favorites of each of these things. This also extended to birthdays, and she never fell short of spoiling me.

Aunt Cathy was always the best grown-up for me to talk to when I struggled with anything as a kid. I remember one year at Easter, one of my other aunts was adamant that a sparkly plastic blue egg I had was really hers, and that it was a “very expensive specialty egg” (it was actually a promotional item that came in a Happy Meal advertising the penguin movie “Happy Feet” and even had a McDonald’s logo on the bottom to prove it, but that’s a whole rabbit hole of crazy that I don’t need to dive further into right now) and she accused me of stealing it from her. It caused a big fight among the adults in my family, and I was devastated because my integrity had been questioned. Aunt Cathy brought me out to the CVS around the corner to get me away from the chaos, and bought me a brand new pink wiry Easter basket with colorful beads threaded around it, along with all the candy I could fit into it. I still have that Easter basket at my parents’ house to this day.

She had a knack for knowing exactly what I needed when I was feeling down. Sometimes, she’d take me to the bookstore after a rough day at school—sometimes just because. She’d help me stock up on new books, and then we’d stop by the cafe and she’d get me the same special treat every single time: a hot chocolate and a giant, soft, chewy sugar cookie that was bigger than my face. Sometimes when I stop by that bookstore, I’ll still get myself one of those same sugar cookies to savor the memory. I look at the sparkling crystals of sugar sprinkled on top and I’m transported back to second grade bookstore trips with her.

Aunt Cathy absolutely loved movies. Her living room shelves were packed with DVDs, and in middle school, I would walk a mile to her house on weekends just to have lunch and watch a movie with her. She bought me all the Twilight books and took me to see each of the movies as they came out. Truthfully, I never even liked Twilight that much—but I never told her. It became our thing, and that made me love it. She also had every season of The Simpsons on DVD and gifted me my own boxed sets for my birthday one year in elementary school. I don’t even own a DVD player anymore, but those sets still sit on display in my living room.

She loved to write and always encouraged me to, so it’s fitting that 10 years after she left, I’m now getting back into my writing. I remember how she loved poetry specifically. One of the things I got when she passed away was a book of poetry she had been reading prior to her death, and she had left a bookmark on a page that detailed approaching the end of life. I never removed her bookmark from the page she left off on.

When initially diagnosed with Stage IV Adrenal Carcinoma (a very rare and aggressive form of cancer), she was told she’d likely not last more than six months from that point. She joined a study at NIH and survived 5 years. A decade later, my family participates in Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Cycle for Survival every single year in honor of her, as well as all the others in our family who we’ve lost and who are still fighting. Rare cancers run rampantly in our family. It was hard to lose Aunt Cathy, but I can find comfort in knowing that she has been out of pain for more than 10 years now, and she was there to meet her son, my cousin Tommy, when he made it to Heaven just a few years ago. 

Today is World Cancer Day. In honor of Aunt Cathy, and all other cancer warriors, you can donate to the Cycle for Survival at this link [here] or with the button below. All donations made through February 6th, 2025 will be doubled!