heroes among us

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and Rick and I had planned to head to Seattle to see my former colleague's movie that was being screened at the Seattle True Independent Film Festival.

Julie met up with us for breakfast down at Lowell's at Pike Place before the movie screening. Quite the bustling place this weekend with Julie's sighting of Martha Stewart, capped off with a parade of painted pig sculptures being hauled down the street. Unfortunately I somehow missed the Martha Stewart sighting since I was so focused on getting to the restaurant on time.

Julie and I both worked with Josh and we were very excited to see the premiere of his documentary -- My Left Hand. And in some ways, I know it was going to also be hard to see it. Josh has battled with cancer, and the movie documents his fight with his rare disease juxtaposed against the joys of his expanding family.

If you ever get a chance to see it, you have to. Josh was diagnosed with malignant tumor in his hand in the late 90's. This was before I knew him. He underwent surgery, but several years later, the cancer was still there. While we were working on the same team, he underwent his second round with cancer. Several rounds of chemotherapy and the tough decision to amputate his left hand in an effort to isolate the cancer. While healing from the surgery, he learned of the biopsy results of his lymph node. It too came back positive for cancer. He had two young sons at home, his wife Kim steadfastly by his side. Josh, now learning to cope with one hand and prosthetics began yet another round of chemo and radiation. His movie brings you along his journey of hope and recovery. Josh has been cancer free for over 20 months now. And just last week his wife gave birth to their third child -- a little girl.

It was so amazing to relive his journey even with all of the sadness, and reminded me just how much he has gone through. I can tell that this is just the beginning of his movie career and I pray a long, cancer-free life.