Wednesday, March 17, 2010

For Me, This Is AlabamaPink's Day

I will always associate St. Patrick's Day with AlabamaPink (aka Amanda Amos). Two years ago, we found out that Ms. Pink would not be able to hoist her glass with the rest of the boozing Pajibans, because she was going to spend the day hooked up to monitors trying to find out what the hell was going on with her body. Not that long after, we got the bad news of her leukemia diagnosis.

While AlabamaPink launched her fight with this evil disease (did you know that cancer has cankles and terrible halitosis?), the 'Jibans rallied around her: gifts and well wishes were sent, at least one marathon was run, there was a comment thread envisioning the Godtopus & the Murdertank smiting her cancer, Ms. Pink challenged Prisco to the original Cannonball Read and other Pajibans jumped on the bandwagon. Like any community, we support our own.

As I was thinking about what I would say in this post about her, the word that came to mind was fierce. She fought an intensely fierce battle with cancer; she never gave up. And although her body may not have won the war, I have no doubt that her spirit lives on. It is also clear that AlabamaPink fiercely loved her family, and I am thinking especially of her husband and Little A today. Ms. Pink was also fiercely witty. The humor, intelligence, insight, and wit she brought to the comment threads of Pajiba were a thing a beauty.

Last year, about this time, I posted a comment on her blog, because it was St. Patrick's Day and so, of course, I was thinking of her. I wanted her to know that I was holding her in my thoughts and in my heart. I'm 99% sure she never saw that comment, because it didn't get posted until after her death. I take consolation in two things about that: first, knowing that her husband must have seen the comment and knew that the Pajibans were still thinking of and rooting for her; and second, knowing that the most important thing was that that positive and hope-filled energy was being sent her way.

So today, on the holiday that I will always associate with her, I will be raising my glass to celebrate this fierce woman (while wearing my AlabamaPink shirt, of course). I invite the rest of the Pajibans, her friends, and family to do the same

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