My Internet marketing mentor, Sarah Prout, suggested we hold a contest to win one of three copies of my new cd, "No Drop of Love (Is Ever Wasted)". I looked at the calendar and saw that 8 days from the start date was a very special day for me and my entire extended family. It was my cousin Lana's birthday.
Lana was, as our cousin David said at her memorial service, an only child but everyone's sister. She was certainly that for me, my brother, sister and all our other cousins as we were growing up in upstate New York. I adored her, patterned my likes and dislikes after hers, and, inevitably, competed fiercely with her. She was my big sister. And she never let me forget it.
I don't remember exactly how we got onto the subject, but I do remember the day and the circumstances. Lana was outside playing with me in the street in front of her house on her first day back from the hospital after being diagnosed with Diabetes Type I. She had been gone forever, it seemed, but we got right back into it like nothing had changed.
We were one-upping each other about what we were going to do when we grew up and Lana brought the discussion to a full stop when she said, "Well, I'm gonna lose my leg." Yeah. I wasn't even going to try to win that one. The weird thing was, we both knew it was true. I'm crying as I type this, but I want everyone who reads this to know that Lana was never a victim of her disease. She was a survivor, a champion. She lived her life with a smile for everyone around her. She loved music and made it her whole life.
So, it's a very small thing to draw the names of the winners of my contest on Lana's birthday. But she was a winner. Everyone who got the chance to know her was a winner. So it seems appropriate. And, it gives me a little comfort.
I love you, Lana. Happy Birthday.
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