Valerie Freeman Awad:  

Life: first, never not pick your own yearbook picture; I left it up to the photographer..I had the honor to have been married and the caregiver to two husbands, both lost to cancer; one directly, one from long term side effects. I was married to my wonderful husband Chuck Freeman for 27 years, he went to Gaithersburg about 8 years before me. I met him through my boyfriend Paul who bought av gas from Chuck at the Montgomery County airpark for his hot rod tractor. I went from quintessential naïve Catholic school girl who was going to become a veterinarian to dating a tractor puller in the blink of an eye.. and absolutely loved it. Chuck was a hot rodder also who built his 1970 Mach 1. Cruising Gaithersburg then hanging behind Bob’s Big Boy where I worked a year or 2, in “the lot” with the other hot rods. I imagine I really disappointed my father not becoming a veterinarian for his race horses; I never made it to college, Life happened, I am truly graced with the path it took.. Chuck and I had 2 children, and with Charlie‘s 3 sons, together- 10 wonderful, silly, beautiful, smart, funny grandkids I cannot imagine life without. Chuck and I moved to Florida in 1985 and 2000 brought his first throat cancer diagnosis, and it returned in 2005. He asked good friend Charlie Awad from Lowe’s, dealing with his own stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis himself, to keep an eye on me... Chuck died the day Of Hurricane Katrina August 2005, 5 days after my birthday. Widowed at 48. Charlie Awad, a Nova Scotia transplant visited Florida, Daytona Beach to be precise, in Spring of 1976.. I often wonder if we weren’t on the sand in Daytona at the same time. He says he left Nova Scotia in a snowstorm and was laying on the beach, around the same time as our senior class trip. Before the end of the year, he was living in Ft. Lauderdale. Charlie kept his word, often around to help. (funny, found out he built hot rods too since he was a teenager..do you see a theme LOL).. Friends, until it became more in late 2006, we went through three of his own cancer recurrences together, not marrying until 2014.. he would not consider asking until he was two years with no evidence of disease, he didn’t want to ‘burden’ me. Charlie passed suddenly and unexpectedly in late August 2018, 5 days after a successful emergency open heart surgery, and 3 days after my 60th birthday.. Sadly, 2 weeks later, we were to return together to his hometown in Nova Scotia for the highly anticipated last ever reunion of The Lincoln’s, the band that played every Friday night at that very same Legion this event was to be held.. these ‘kids’ were going to be reliving their Friday nights, something he looked forward to for months, I decided I had to make that trip in his honor. He was there... ever present in spirit. I’m so grateful this late in life to have a job that is a passion; helping others understand they can get through and survive as we were helped. In 2014, a few months after we were married, I started my current job as a Patient Support Navigator with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, helping patients, caregivers, and others many with no hope, in shock with a diagnosis or symptomatic needn’t a colonoscopy, learn there is help out there, they too can survive and thrive.. The Alliance was there for us, how blessed to give back.. I haven’t changed jobs often, never completed a resume until 2014.. After high school, I worked for Marriott for over 20 years, enjoyed 5 years ...Expand for more