Keisha and Rod Echols, with their two children
were one and three years old at the time and our top priorities."
Determined not to let the diagnosis sideline the holidays but
also fexible enough to invite new traditions into their lives, the
Echolses put their minds together and came up with a workable solution that would carry through the holidays and into
the New Year.
First on the agenda was a slight rearranging of Thanksgiving to accommodate Rod's surgery date and to allow the family to enjoy a traditional get-together. "After we plugged the
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Photos by Stan Kaady
dates into the calendar, we started calling family members and
inviting them to a dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving,"
Keisha explains. Moving the celebration ahead by a few days
not only helped the Echolses manage their hectic schedule but
also allowed family members who usually have other plans on
Thanksgiving Day to celebrate with them.
"It's not always easy to get an extended family together on a
single day—with everyone having dinners and parties," Keisha
explains. "Because we moved the date, our families, locally and
winter 2013 | cancer fighters thrive 27