For those who don’t know the story of my family’s journey with Myleofibrosis, here’s a little background:

 In November of last year, my dad was diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer called Myelofibrosis. Myelofibrosis is a disorder of the bone marrow, in which the marrow is replaced by scar (fibrous) tissue. This means that my Dad’s bone marrow is dry. Bone marrow is basically a factory where various blood cells are produced. Blood cells are a necessity to live. When a person’s bone marrow is dry, it means they’re not making the blood cells they need to survive. Obviously, this is bad. My Dad is one of the lucky ones. Most people wait years for a bone marrow donor. Some never find the bone marrow they need. A bone marrow match was found for my Dad and he had a successful transplant. Dad's doctors say he's doing amazingly well, but he's not out of the woods yet.

I try to post updates on my personal Facebook page as often as possible and in the most recent post, my Mom wrote this:

I wish I could get to sending out Christmas cards but I just have so much to do that it’s not working.... The moderate weather this week sure helped Dad. He only wore three shirts in the house while we were in our summer clothes. I think if his blood does not thicken I'll be in my bathing suit while he is in a snow suit. The difference makes me giggle. A nice thing is that when we go to bed at night the temperature is not a factor. Dad is under a pile of blankets and warm. I'm under the same pile of blankets and happy that Dad is there and fall asleep happy.

This morning, a friend called me at the Hawk and had a fantastic suggestion.  Robyn Hawley suggested we flood my parents with cards to cheer them up and let them know we're thinking about them since they’re stuck in sterile isolation and not able to be around other people, which has got to be extra tough during the holidays. I'll be going home for Christmas and think it'd be awesome to slide under Mom and Dad’s door a huge stack of Christmas cards of love. If you wanna participate, you can send cards to:

Traci Taylor
98.1 The Hawk
59 Court Street
Binghamton, NY 13901

If you'd like to personalize the card, my parent's names are Harold and Debbie and the names of the little kids are: Sarah, Charlie and Sam. Please feel free to include your name and address within the card. Can't promise Mom and Dad will be able to write back, but they do try to respond to everyone who reaches out to them.

Our family:

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