Today Melanie Fastrup lost her battle with lymphoma. She died in the hospital, surrounded by family and friends. Melanie was mom to three girls, a former teacher, and wife of my teammate, Dan Fastrup. She suffered from Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia.
This mouthful of words simply means that lymphoma cells in the bone marrow crowd out normal blood-producing cells. As a result, Melanie needed a lot of blood transfusions. She had one yesterday afternoon and caught a bacterial infection. Dan found her unconscious on the living room floor. At the hospital, all her systems began shutting down. Melanie went on life support. She perished this afternoon.
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training was a big deal to Melanie. She participated as a walker with the San Gabriel Valley team. She got Dan off the couch and into running with TNT. And this season, Melanie served as our Honored Teammate. Honored Teammates are leukemia/lymphoma survivors that we salute in spirit whenever we run.
I remember Melanie cheering on TNT at mile 12 of the Santa Barbara Half-Marathon. She had a big smile and word of encouragement for me as I headed to the finish line. In fact, rarely did Melanie not have a big smile. Perhaps it was living under threat of death for so long that gave her a deep inner joy. She used to ask me how my broken foot was mending. This in the midst of bone marrow transplants, blood transfusions, and chemo to the 10th power. Melanie had discarded much of the baggage we think is important and found a peace and a courage that I greatly admired.
Our Coach Katie McCollom sent around a poem by author Raymond Carver. He also fought cancer and this is what he thought shortly before his death.
"Late Fragment"
"And did you get what you wanted
from this life? Even so,
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth."
Melanie passed away beloved by many. She will always be my Honored Teammate.
I run the City of Angels Half-Marathon this Sunday in her memory.
And come January, I will run the Phoenix Marathon for Melanie as well.
And if you could, please click on my Team in Training button and make a donation.
Melanie's fight is finished. But there are other beloved out there who may still be saved.
