On August 23, 2009 9:15 PM I lost my wife to a pulmonary embolism after three years of treatment for ovarian cancer. In the days that followed I would read her “Robin Kearney” Facebook page and the “R.I.P. Mrs. Kearney you will never be forgotten” Facebook page that was created by one of Robin’s former students. It was so comforting to read the posts that were written on these pages, Robin has touched so many lives and they wanted to share their feelings and memories.
Robin and I were never able to have children of our own, yet Robin had hundreds maybe thousands of kids. One of my joys over the years is the contact I got to have (even through rather limited) with Robin’s students. I was and am part of a much bigger family. Many of Robin’s students called her momma K and once you were a part of the family it was for life. At all of the schools she worked at Robin became known as the teacher you could go to with your problems, and you would always feel accepted. I remember a freshman came up to her one day and said “hi you don’t know me but I was told you help kids and I don’t have money for lunch”. Needless to say Robin took care of his problem as she would for any of her kids.
I have seen posts from students that span twenty years and I’m touched by the feelings and the memories that they shared. One of the great things about today’s technologies is the ease of communication; it enabled Robin to stay actively in contact with many former students as they went on to college or moved on in life.
After reading the Facebook pages I moved on to Robin’s blogs, her online diaries http://robinflamingo.xanga.com/ and http://robinkearney.redtoenail.org/. The first blog on xanga.com was a blog Robin started long before she knew she had cancer and is a daily blog were she discussed everything. The second blog on redtoenail.org is an online community that provides support for people with cancer and their caregivers, friends, and family. Redtoenail.org provides a place were you can meet people who can really say “I know what you are going through” because they are dealing with cancer too.
I found these blogs to be a terrific gift that Robin has left for me and her family. In reading Robin’s updates I remember many of these days so clearly because we had been living them together. The things that empress one in reading these post’s is that Robin was always thankful for all the gifts God gave her and frequently listed them. Robin saw Gods hand in many of the events in her life and she never lost faith. Robin never believed that God decided she would have cancer, but she did feel God guided other events to make coping with cancer easier.
Robin did not lose the battle with cancer, I truly believe she won. She never let sickness, chemo, surgery, radiation, pain or fatigue keep her from living her life to the very end. There were days when Robin would be dressed for school, sitting on the bed crying and I would say you don’t have to go and she would reply that she did. She would go and when she was teaching or with her students she truly felt better because they were so important to her.
