Scott Schmeltzer, Thanks for Listening

There are a few big days you need to remember or are worth tying a string on your finger for. Your significant other’s birthday or anniversary. The day your little bundle of joy was born. And finally, Freeborn County’s Relay for Life.

It starts at 6 p.m. Friday at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds. Be there or be square!

The Relay for Life is an annual event that raises money and awareness of cancer through different fundraisers that culminate in one amazing night. You will see lighted luminaries — small lunch bags that are white, turned upside down, filled with sand, with a small candle inside — that people decorate with everything from photos and memories of people who have succumbed to cancer or are celebrated for beating cancer or presently are fighting cancer. You will walk with survivors of cancer through these luminaries and have that share as an inspiration for yourself.

You will both share and hear heroic stories about fighting cancer and overcoming great odds. You will walk silently with your own thoughts about how cancer has affected your loved ones. This night is all about sharing and overcoming obstacles. It is about climbing the mountain, knocking down the wall and persistence personified.

Finally, this night is about you and how cancer has touched your heart in either watching a loved one struggle with it or in the loss of a family member or loved one that has succumbed to it. It is a time to fight, cry, think, and share all at the same time. It is Freeborn County’s Relay for Life. Come join me!

The last two weeks I have written about my friend Geri Murtaugh. Geri has had a battle with cancer that sadly took her away from us last weekend. I will miss my friend. I will miss her monkey bread, her smile, and her corny play on words. I will miss her love of animals, her love of her children and, of course, her love of family. I also will miss that Geri is one of the only people on our staff that remembers Barnabus Collins from “Dark Shadows,” “Happy Days,” and the other early to mid-’70s shows as we grew up in about the same era. “Fantasy Island” and “Love Boat” conversations are now just a memory.

I will also miss Geri’s maroon and black sweater that was always kept around for her to tell me it is too cold as she would slip that on and throw a blanket over her legs to type up another story or seven. I will miss how she played the role of good sheriff in protecting our staff editorial members when department managers would disagree. I will miss how she would light up at our picnics and holiday parties when we had bingo — dirty or normal — and other trivia-type games. She thrived on word association-type games and was quite competitive. Finally, I will just miss Geri. She made me smile.

Tribune Publisher Scott Schmeltzer’s column appears every Tuesday.