No one wants to hear the words ‘You have six weeks to live” as the doctor at MD Anderson told Debbie and I in August of 2009. After all day of testing we thought surely this is a mistake and they are wrong. They were, she had eight weeks and lived every one to the fullest. She was able to see her last grandson born and got to pull the slot machine one more time and brought some money back to Texas from Louisiana. She did not feel sorry for herself and handled death courageously.
Debbie fought breast cancer for 14 years and had it beat until the Cigarette Cancerman rode in and took her away. She was never quite able to put the cigarette down and it got her in the end. For those that smoke, it is time to put them away, they are killers.
Debbie’s dad was in law enforcement, and she followed in his footsteps by graduating from the Harris County Sheriff’s Department Academy in 1979. She was so happy when she was in law enforcement and was never able to fully adjust to not being able to work anymore. When she was a bailiff in the courts in Houston, she always had a soft spot for the teenager who was in the courts for the first time. She would talk to them and try to get through to them to get their act together.
Debbie was always a giver and not a taker. She would do anything anyone asked or would do something for someone when they were not expecting it. I believe she was grinning from ear to ear when I handed out the first scholarship bearing her name, and it will not be the last as they will be handing out this scholarship long after I am gone.
-RB