for Pam in Palm Bay...

Hey Pam....to read Melissa's blog starting at the BEGINNING...go to
www.fortscancersux1.blogspot.com scroll down to the ARCHIVES on the right hand side of the page. Go to the bottom of the archives - her first post was May 17, 2006. If you want to start at the beginning, you have to start there and basically ready backward! ENJOY. Thanks for taking care of my dad!

Fairmont comes up barely short in Semifinals

(Columbus) - The Lady Firebirds couldn't quite close the deal on Friday night, as they fell, 61-55, to the Toledo Waite Indians in a state semifinal at the Schottenstein Center. Fairmont finished its season with an outstanding 22-3 record.

Fairmont trailed by seven at the half, but behind Cassie Sant made an impressive comeback to pull close in the fourth quarter. However, Holly Carey's go-ahead three-point attempt with about a minute remaining went in and out of the net, and the Firebirds wouldn't score the rest of the way in the defeat.

Sant was nearly unstoppable in the lane, hitting 10-of-16 from inside the arc en route to a 25-point night. The University of Dayton bound senior outscored Ms. Ohio Natasha Howard, who finished with 22 points despite sitting out a quarter due to foul trouble.

Carey, saddled with foul trouble early in the contest, played a wonderful game with 13 points in just 18 minutes of action. Her ability to make the three-point shot forced Waite to stretch their defense and opened the lane even more for Cassie.

The group of four seniors finished their careers with back-to-back district titles, two regional final appearances, and one trip to state. In the process, they blazed the path for the future of the Fairmont program, which looks very bright with an outstanding freshman class coming in next year. Not to mention, an outstanding core group of Kelly Hart, Chelsea Welch, Alona Skipper, and Devin Farley to build upon.

Head coach Tim Cogan earned every coach of the year honor possible, including Division 1 State COY. Cogan improved to 168-69 in his coaching career.

Melissa Fortener McLaughlin "B" Positive Award goes to...

Jessica Beatty - senior guard/forward on the Fairmont High School Basketball team.
We talked to her after the banquet tonight - said she is pretty sure she will be attending Bluffton - and playing basketball.
Fairmont played in the semifinals last Friday night against Toledo Waite. GREAT game. Cassie Sant (last year's Fort Award winnter) had the game of her life. She will be playing for University of Dayton next year.
We are SO proud of all the girls - this was a team that NO ONE gave any credence to at the beginning of the year. They NEVER gave up........
Sounds like someone ELSE I know!
Fort would be SO proud.
Congrats to all the Lady Firebirds!

Lady Firebirds Advance to FINAL 4!!!

Fort's alma matre, Kettering Fairmont High School, Lady Firebirds Basketball team advanced to the state finals this past weekend (for the first time in school history!)....Fort would have been SO proud! She followed the Firebirds ALWAYS. (The weekend she came home from Hospice, she was bound and determined to go to the home game that weekend...but unfortunately she was too exhausted to attend. She LOVED following the basketball AND volleyball teams.
Her college Alma Matre, Ohio University, also won the MAC tournament this weekend (ironically to NICK'S college alma matre, Akron!) to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA tournamen As Angie said "she was doing DOUBLE DUTY this weekend!
Fairmont will meet Toledo Waite(?) on Friday! GO FIREBIRDS!

Lady Firebirds receive Regional Finals Trophy

Friday, March 12, 2004

Hard to believe it was 6 years ago that Melissa & John were married.
Here's to you Melissa & John!


This photo is in a scrapbook Fort made of their wedding...her caption for this one?
"YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"




The wedding party...

Fort's Poetry

When Fort was a senior in high school, she had a project for her creative writing class. She had several weeks to do it, but waited until the night before to get it done. (She was a procrastinator to the nth degree...just like her mom). She handed me the completed, graded project in between basketball games (she was playing)..."look mom, I got an A!"
She was an amazing writer then...just got better at it. Her poetry kind of tells you her story when she was in high school. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

STRESS

Hi! My name is stress
I like highschoolers alot
They're really vulnerable now. They wanna go to college, they wanna go to Florida, they want boyfriends
girlfriends
good grades,
nice cars,
but guess what? Bratty highschoolers suck.
Actually I suck. I suck the energy right out of them. I make their life a living hell until
they want to cry, and curl up in a corner in that silly fetal position. It's neat how it's the same position that gave me the opportunity to give their mommies a little taste of me.
That was a different kind of stress, though. Like a physical stress.
God I love athletes. I usually like to move in when they think they're done with a really tough practice
and I can feel it
I can taste it
The coach wants two more suicides, turkeys!
This is the part I really like because then I just linger because with this later practice and all
how in the hell are they going to finish all their homework?
that's cool when they cry
I like it alot.
My life is like one of those big confusing, circular arguments.
There is no way out-
Man, I really get off when I work really hard to make a kid's life a living hell,
and then,
he finally gets his homework done,
I'm leavin' the house,
depressed cuz it's over,
but then all of the sudden I'm at his teacher's house cuz she's
bitchin about all these papers to grade, and her husband wants dinner, but she hasn't gone shopping yet, cuz she had to stay after school because some little shit was stealing all of her favorite new pens and.....
Ohh, OH, Oooohhhhh,
Ahh, Ah, Ahhhhhhhhh........
Sorry bout that.
God, I love this job.

Depression & Ice Cream Pie
Life confuses me.
I do many things that suggest
the notion that
my overall timing is out of whack
the choices I make suck
and I might just have to settle for less than the best
I don't want sympathy,
but listen, okay?
I made a choice this summer
It was a very bad choice
I was caught making this choice
And here I sit in misery, thinking about it every day, thinking about
a reputation lost in the eyes
that know.
Im suffering but I get by because
Hey, I've got goals, sure I've got em'!
1)A guy doesn't like me
2)Grades I can't seem to Make
3)a figure I'll never have
I've got greart friends
but do I make them as happy as they make me?
OUCH!
rejection is painful
how do I escape these feelings?
usually a good CD
sure "I've got two legs that can carry me, two sharp eyes to look for the light,
I've got two strong arms to hold on tight, two good friends on my left and right."
But who is my "only one"?
Jesus, I can find the most depressing aspect
of a cheery song sometimes
I'm hungry
I think an ice cream pie would cheer me up.
Yeah, an Ice Cream Pie.

30th Celebration!

We will be celebrating Nick's birthday TODAY with Joe's Pizza (THE best pizza around & his favorite...Nick & Mere will be celebrating BOTH of their 30th birthdays this Saturday @ Harrigans...7ish- JOIN THEM if you can! (we'll have the boys!)

Happy 30th Nick!

(here we go again...it's one of my kids birthdays...so I HAVE to tell the story of
the day they were born. I KNOW Fort would approve - she might have better stories than I do-NO she WOULD have better stories than I do, but for now, I know she would say "HAP BIRTDAY NICK!")

Dear Nick,
On the day you were born...ACTUALLY 4 days before you were born, we were in
the hospital, walking the halls, TRYING to have a baby. YOU. It was Leap Day,
and I was kind of excited about a Leap Year baby...but you weren't. You wanted
a birthday EVERY year, not every 4 years!
SO...4 days later, I woke up and thought my water had broken. So I went to the
doctor - he said "NOPE"...not yet. But that evening, when your dad got home,
we sat down to dinner, and I said "I think I'm in labor". So we packed Melissa
up, took her to Jean & Steve's. Got in the car, and dad said "hmmm...which way should we go-down Wayne, or the highway???" My response? "I don't care, just GET ME THERE!"
We arrived at St. Elizabeth's at 7:36 (we have the ticket from the parking lot to prove it!). YOU arrived 71 minutes later - at 8:47 p.m. 7lbs. 7 oz.
We were THRILLED. Now our family was complete...a girl AND a boy. And the
next day, I got roses for the first time!
Happy 30th birthday, Nicholas Andrew!


Nick-a happy baby at 6 months!



Nick & his FAVORITE sister...

Memories of Fort...

Every once in awhile I find something that makes me laugh when I think about Melissa. I was going through some old emails and found one that I had sent out while she was in Hospice...she ALWAYS had a great sense of humor. Even in the last couple of weeks. I hope it makes you smile too...


Sunday, December 14, 2008
Mornings have been pretty good for Melissa. She's been eating rice krispies for breakfast, and usually two cartons of skim milk. When we left, she and John were watching the Sunday Morning show they watch together at home every Sunday. Good time for us to leave them alone for awhile.
Yesterday she had a busy morning - some of her closest friends brought their babies (Drew was there too). She loved it. But it really wore her out. She had a few more visitors after they left, got her meds around 2 and slept from 2 til about 6. She really needed the sleep.
She asked me this morning if I would take her to the Dayton Mall to look for a wig after she finished her blog this morning. No change in her attitude that she will be getting out of there soon.
Hospice is a WONDERFUL facility. Her doctor, nurses, aides are very understanding and caring. She continues to make us laugh every day. She gets a "bed bath" every day. Wednesday and Thursday, Ne Ne was the nurses aide that gave her a bath. Yesterday, a new aide came in and asked when she wanted her bath - when she left, Melissa looked at me and said "I already have a girlfriend, and I am not ready to break up with her yet...." (I guess that was Ne Ne....)
She asked that her catheter be taken out the second day she was there, and the nurse had no problem with that.
She is now getting out of bed, with help of course, and can walk to the bathroom. Each time we have to change her cannula to the one with the longer cord, because she has to be on oxygen all the time. She is pretty weak, but her spirit is VERY strong. She has always been a competitor and does NOT give in to defeat easily.