I with a heavy heart announce that my traveling companion and loving granddaughter passed from this life on Sunday night. On October 4 after coming home from competing in the All A State Volleyball tournament she collapsed on the floor in a game of VB we rushed her to the Murray Hospital where she was airlifted to Vanderbilt children hospital in Nashville they told us it was Lymphoma and would have to run tests to determine what kind, we requested St Judes in Memphis and was immediately transferred there. She had a large mass near her heart, they determined that it was a rapid growing form normally not found in young people called T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma they kept her in Memphis until Christmas Day and determined that the mass had all but disappeared, she then returned once a week for treatment until 5 weeks ago when she began running a fever and they discovered the mass had came back with a vengeance, they treated her with everything they knew to do, and she fought to live. Last saturday they announced that all treatments had failed and any other treatment they gave her would be fatal and asked her what she wanted to do, she said I want to go home, so we did. She passed with a UK blanket draped over given by a local bank with her name sewn into it.
She loved the Wildcats and we made countless trips(275 miles) to Rupp we were at the Elite 8 when Aaron Harrison led us to wins over UL and Michigan, we have Been to Ms St, Ole Miss, Georgia, Ark, A&M, Auburn, Alabama, Vandy and UT. WE have attended all three Final Fours under the Calipari era, we traveled to Chicago to see UK thrash Duke in the Champions Classic. I stumbled through a emotional eulogy yesterday at her funeral and told several of our experiences at these games I will share 1, When we went to UT we were 5 rows from the floor the only blue in a sea of orange, we got a big dose of Rocky Top before the game but the Cats came out hot and got a double digit lead. During the course of the game she and a little boy about her age were exchanging barbs and I suggested that we were vastly outnumbered and it might be prudent to get along, she said "I am not listening to that". Towards the end of the game Admiral Schofield got hot and Tennessee surged ahead by 8 with about a minute to go and Davy Crockett running around the court waving his musket and the band working the crowd into a frenzy playing Rocky Top over and over, I suggested we make our exit. I grabbed her hand and started out when I felt resistance from her jerking back, the boy had grabbed her by the arm and said "where are you going it is just now getting good" She fired back "I am tired of Rocky Top and dont forget you have to come to Lexington" Everyone around us roared. I loved her and am heartbroken.
