My Friend Linda - The Portland Marathon

Linda and Don Taylor have been friends, leaders, and great support for Laura and I for about 8+ years. Linda is one of the most wonderful counselors I know for people going through the trauma of death. Linda is a hospice nurse and has touched the lives of thousands of people.

When Linda told Laura and I about her new life -her dream of walking 26.2 miles (a full marathon) tomorrow we got so excited for her.

Linda has experienced so many wonderful changes, 50 pounds less in weight, 60 inches lost, and she has already walked a 2o mile and 16 mile training walk. Here are a couple of pictures we took of Linda's sixteen mile walk a couple of weeks ago. Send up a prayer for our own Linda of Laurelhurst tomorrow as she does the Portland Marathon.









Linda's support group can be visited at www.womenwalkthemarathon.com

Here is an email by Linda's coach telling the story of transformation in Linda's life (it's a great story):

COURAGE
After the last lecture in September, a few of us were standing in the lobby of Memorial Health Center. Mignonne looked at her mom, Linda, and asked, "Do you remember that you had to lean on
my arm to get up those stairs in January". Linda just smiled.

Some of you have quietly followed the progress of Linda Taylor this season. Linda is a hospice
nurse. Twelve years ago, she was paralyzed by a spinal cord infection that nearly took her life.
She's a tough, courageous woman. When she realized after surgery that she could wiggle her
toes, she decided she'd walk. PT got her walking, but limping to the bathroom wasn't all she had in mind. Linda wanted to go back to work; she had no
intention of hanging it up and going on disability.

She talked her docs into allowing her more physical therapy geared specifically towards the demands of her home health care job. Her boss let her go back to work part time. "Since I worked
out of my car, they didn't know how long it took me to do a half day's work. If I needed six
hours, I did it. At least I was back working." she told me.

Last fall, Mignonne and Linda attended the showing of Lani Jo Leigh's documentary "Walk to
Me" at the Hollywood Theatre. They decided that night to give Women Walk the Marathon a try.
Although Linda was clear with me the first night that she didn't know what she would be able to
do, she clearly showed me she had the spirit to do something that would give her cause to smile. Neither of us knew if that would be to walk the Portland Marathon on Sunday.

On Sunday, Linda WILL walk the Portland Marathon. It won't be a cakewalk. It will be a triumph.