Grandpa Sturzl's Story

In this third post of my blog series of cancer awareness posts, I wanted to showcase my Grandpa Sturzl's story. Mom, cue the tissues!

Grandpa Sturzl was born on May 20th, 1928 He graduated from Crandon High School in 1946 and married his high school sweetheart, my beautiful Grandmother. They had seven children. Sadly, my twin uncles, Bruce and Brian passed away from the measles and pnuemonia when they were infants. My mother was born after the twins, making her the fourth out of five living children. After dealing with such adversity by losing two children, my Grandpa overcame even more when he was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  When I was about 14 Grandpa Sturzl was diagnosed again. This time he had prostate cancer that spread quickly. Sadly, he died when I was 16 after his long and courageous battle.

My Grandpa and I switching our glasses at our Fourth of July Celebration

Grandpa Sturzl is one of the most important people in my life. I respect him so much because he was able to overcome so much in his life. He was a very strong man. Literally and emotionally. He was the man of the house. He was traditional. He was a hard worker. He was basically an amazing person to look up to.  For some reason, he made me feel totally comfortable with myself in the midst of awkward growing stages. I felt like I could talk to him about anything, even though I didn't most of the time. Looking back, I wish I had more time with him (when I was finally mature enough to stop thinking about myself) to actually ask him more questions about himself. I realize now that there is so much I don't know about his life.

For reasons that I can't even fathom, he made a huge impact on my life. It could have been because I was an emotional teenager, or because I loved him so much, but either way, his story hits close to my heart to this day. I find him in my dreams all the time, and will probably be naming a son of mine after him. Sadly, I remember more about the last years of his life while he was battling with cancer than I do before he was sick. My vague memories of him include orange circus peanuts hidden in his top dresser drawer, M&Ms in his candy dish. Looking over my shoulder to see him sitting on the grass at a softball tournament talking with my boyfriend Dillon, sitting in his leather chair watching the stock market numbers (that made absolutely no sense to me) Butterscoch and Worthers candies in his pockets. Playing dominoes at the kitchen table, and big barrel chest hugs that nearly hurt because he squeezed so hard... What I wouldn't give for one of those hugs just one more time. 

Even now, while writing about 1/100th of my memories/feelings/words down, I am totally emotionally overwhelmed. I'm laying on my couch in my college house tearing up and sniffling like crazy.  It's amazing what one person can do in one lifetime to touch another's soul. When it's family it makes it easier to feel affected by a person,  but I am hoping that these different stories I plan to share with you will touch your heart in a way that makes you want to inspire others to make a difference by raising awareness and hope.

I know many of you have experienced a similar story to mine, one that pulls at your heartstrings so hard that it is nearly heart breaking to tell it. I know there isn't a lot of facts in the story, but I don't think there needs to be. If you have a story that you feel strongly about, I encourage you to write it down because writing mine down is very comforting, and it might be for you too.

My next post will be about my mom's beautiful co-worker, Julie, who passed away from Ovarian Cancer, but left a legacy after she started making cancer awareness bracelets while she was in the hospital. Her bracelets took off like crazy and have raised thousands of dollars towards cancer research. She is one of the reasons I am so active in Relay For Life and Awareness in general. It's amazing what God's plan turns out to be.

I hope you have a beautiful day and a great week. Dig Pink is tomorrow at UW Stout and I cannot wait to show you how it goes!