Why I walk…

I walk for Allie. It is as simple as that. Allison Leigh Scott changed my whole world the instant I clicked on her website (www.scotthousehold.com). Before Allie, I never understood, I never considered, I never cared. Not because I was unkind or cruel, but because I was unaware.

I gave birth to and am blessed to be the mother of two beautiful and amazing sons, both of whom are the absolute center of my universe. Now, I know what it means to love someone so intensely that it’s hard to breathe without them. Because of Logan and Grayson, I understand a mother’s love. Because of Allie, I understand a mother’s pain. Leukemia took “our” Allie away, and although I never met her, I loved her so, through her mother’s eyes, through her mother’s words…

Allie changed my life, and I will never be the same, nor do I want to be the same. Now, I want to be different, I want to make a difference, and I know I CAN make a difference. Now, I will ask people for their money, for their time, for their support, even for their blood. It is the least I can do, the very least one mother can do for another mother, for any other mother trying to learn again how to breathe after her breath has been stolen away, her world has been cast into shadow, and her beautiful child has been stolen by this disease.

I walk for those mothers. I walk for those children. I walk for my own children, beautiful and healthy and the very essence of my beating heart. I walk because I can’t imagine life without my boys, my sweet princes.

But most of all, I walk for Allie.

Written by Jenny Feeney, local team captain in Northern New Jersey who first walked for Light The Night in 2004.

To support Jenny’s Light The Night walk, visit her donation page at http://www.active.com/donate/ltnWestfi/2373_JennyC724

Thanks, Jenny, for letting us post your essay here!