HAPPY THANKSGIVING & A Judy Appreciation

Here’s Judy & Walt’s wedding picture. They were married in 1983, the year Madonna hit it big on the Billboard Chart’s with “Everybody”, when she told Dick Clark she wanted to rule the world. I’m Thankful for my family, extended family, friends, to the people who allow me to write about their lives, which helps me achieve my mission of promoting the City and Charities; and thanks to everyone that read’s PhillyChitChat.My sister was a really special person, professionally a nurse, she had a great set of values, living by the Golden Rule; The Golden Rule is an ethical code that states one has a right to just treatment, and a responsibility to ensure justice for others.

Later in her career she became a patients advocate, helping those in need navigate our confusing health care system (Ironically, the same system rejected her several times for medical Pet Scans that would have located a few of her hidden tumors, until it was too late as one doctor thought it was better to do an MRI/eye exam anyway. He missed two tumors near her kidney, jerk.)

She was also very involved in her daughters lives, coaching cheer leading, field hockey, while her husband coached the girls softball team and became school board president. Judy also was involved in PTA, ran the car washes, plant sale and worked and made it to most of her kids games when she wasn’t coaching them. She and her family had a sense of adventure, often taking on impossible dreams of travel, taking their time getting to places so they could stop and smell the roses along the way.

Walt & Judy 12/07 (4 months before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer). Theirs was a love affair that I was honored to see. I really never saw two people so in tune with each other.
Judy’s still with us, but her spirit has gone. I rededicate myself in that spirit of kindness to continue to write about the good, the interesting and the fabulous as well as continuing to cover charities giving them a voice they may not otherwise have in a media format, and personally I will try and embody Judy’s spirit of living by treating everyone equally without judgment.