We did it!!!!!!

Emotional does not adequately describe the experience of the Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk. Overwhelming, maybe.

Friday I taped an interview for CLTV describing the Overnight and why our team was walking. The station aired the piece every hour Friday and a shortened piece on Saturday. Saturday morning there were lots of last minute phone calls and by 6:00 PM our team had already battled getting downtown among 60000 rabid soccer fans, a few thousand more coming to hear the band Journey. The opening ceremony, though really hot, was filled with encouragement and stories and song focused on why we were doing this, to bring suicide awareness out of the dark, to prevent suicide where we can, to survive the loss of someone we loved. At approximately 7:20 PM over two thousand walkers began the journey. In the first five minutes of the walk we rounded the first turn that brought the Planetarium into full view. Katie and I had a good cry in each others arms and then onward we walked north along Lake Shore Drive.

Our little band stayed together as well as we could pretty much until the first rest stop. What I loved was getting to meet the different team members we had only known via emails and phone calls: Giselle, Chris Neil, Randy Estes, Amy Groebel, Jessica, Jennifer, the other Kristin. And we met many others as we walked whose lives were dramatically changed by someone they loved taking their own life. Chris and Christa and grandsons Hayden and Reece were at about the 8 mile mark to cheer us on ( and give us a good reason to take a little rest.) We reached the half way mark (10 miles, which I have never walked at one time) at almost midnight. Ouch, everything hurt. Did you ever realize that using a Porta Potty in complete darkness is high risk?
Katie managed to drop her glow stick light source right in, well, you know where. Oops. Dinner was provided at this rest stop which was somewhere near Foster and Lake Shore Drive. Chris Neil on our team had some Starbucks friends meet us and they came bearing much needed little cans of "Double Shot Expresso". For me, the caffeine jolt was just what I needed. The turn around back towards Soldier Field was daunting to face and our newly vaselined, mole skinned feet trudged on.

Did I say how hot and sweaty we all were? Yuck. My creative sister had made these clever little neck scarf things filled with some kind of gel that provided some cooling. For that I am forever thankful. At mile 15, Katie was cramping, Pete was pretty done in after working all day at Itasca Fest and then doing this, facing working again at Itasca fest all day Sunday, Tommy was not feeling too good either. So being the mindful woman I am, I suggested maybe we call it a walk and get on the sweeper bus to be brought back to the holding area. We boarded the air conditioned bus, sank into the seats and after a about a minute and a hald, Katie said "I am going to finish this." Katie and I climbed off the bus and completed the hardest five miles, ever. Lighting luminarias that stretched almost endlessly, was high emotion, again. All of us straggling in any where from 4:30 to 5:30 AM. But we did it!

The closing ceremonies were once again, emotionally draining but fulfilling. My gigantic blisters will go away; the memories and the way we could honor Laurie in a most dramatic way will stay with me forever. To all of you were prayed (Debbie, our all night prayer warrior, thank you!) , contributed, came to cheer us on, and especially, to you, our team Laurie's Legacy I am so thankful. Words, this time, can not express. I love you.