I was born for such a time as this.

   The text message I received from my big brother this week said, “I would not expect you to meet this challenge with any less courage than it took for Dad to jump out of that hedgerow into a bunch of Germans and start shooting…..”  Thank you for that reminder, Dale.
 

   My father, Quentin Latta, enlisted in the U.S. Army after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.   He trained and became a paratrooper, serving with the 101^st Airborne.   He jumped into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1945.   Many of the U.S. paratroops landed nowhere near their intended drop zone that dark morning.  My father ended up much farther north than the planned DZ, but he did not know that.   He did not see a single other Ally that night or for the next three days.  When he started walking to the rendezvous site he was travelling in the opposite direction.  He travelled for 3 days, at night, and laid down in fields of grain during the day to camouflage himself and rest.  

   On D-Day +3, Daddy heard German voices and saw them sitting in a circle below him.   His written account stated that since he had been sent to France to kill Germans that is what he decided to do right then and there.   He jumped out of the hedgerow into the middle of the circle of Germans and began shooting.

   That is how the Lattas do.

   My father was shot and captured by the Germans that day, but later liberated in Cherbourg, France, by the Allies and went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne, Belgium in December of 1945. 

   After my head was shaved this week, my childhood friend, Denise, exclaimed that I looked just like my Dad.   I feel that it is quite fitting that I will go through chemotherapy looking like Quentin Latta.   I will try to make him proud of me.

   A kind, thoughtful, young man sent me the link to a Youtube video this week of a man fighting a much, much, bigger fight than mine.  He has been fighting a rare, aggressive cancer for the past seven years.  He is facing the fight with courage, grace and determination.  It is Stuart Scott of ESPN's Sport Center.

 

 Stuart advises, “Don’t give up. Don't EVER give up.”   He also stated this, "You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live."   I, too, am living life with cancer on my own terms with the love and support of my friends and family.

     

 

My wonderful, supportive, class at the Head Shaving Bash! 

 

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle; My loving kindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer, My shield and He in whom I take refuge. Psalm 144

    In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.² Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.³ Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Psalm 31:1-4