~a following Norman update and if you didn't believe in angels before~

"It was Mike who spotted Norman first along the road way that June evening as we headed east into Kansas for a return trip home there.  I had my nose buried in the blog post that I was reading to him, the one that talked about how I wanted to started "living tiny" someday in the future.  I was so intent on getting it finished before we ran out of  the cell service area near the Morrow Point turnoff that I had not even looked up.  Just as I was getting to the good part, the one where I thought I could really sell my idea to him about starting to live a more minimalist lifestyle, I heard Mike yell out.....

"Hey!  There he is!  That's him."

     We have followed Norman Horn's journey ever since that day in June as we came upon him pushing his jogging stroller/"all I need to survive life on the road walking more than 3,000 miles across America" cart just about 30 miles to the east of our home here in Montrose.  A total stranger to us before our encounter along Highway 50, Norm has now become our friend.  It's been a great privilege to become acquainted with him, to help in a small way to procure food and shelter for some of his nights along the way, and now to tell my first grade students at Olathe Elementary about his mission as well.  

     Norm's journey has taken him to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as of this weekend and in less than a month he will complete the endeavor that he set out to accomplish as he makes it to Atlantic City, New Jersey by the 11th of October.  He has made it to his "home" territory and things seem so very familiar now to him.  What a great boost that must be to his spirit and how happy we all are to see it come to pass.  Later today he gets to throw out the "first pitch" at the Pirates game, an honor bestowed upon so very few.  Wish we could pick up the game on TV way out here in the Great American West but chances are that won't happen.  But we'll catch the video clip later I am sure.  

     One of the things that I have come to be reminded of as I've had the chance to know Norman and help a bit with his travel by foot, is just how much human kindness there really still is in this world of ours.  If you hadn't a belief in angels before following Norm's story,  you surely would afterwards.  Some of my favorite things to have read of his journey along the way came from encounters with common, ordinary people who decided to help a Pennsylvania man make a difference in spreading awareness of the number one killer of children, pediatric cancer.  
     People like the man Norm encountered walking towards Gunnison, Colorado.  He was the older guy who saw him on the road late one evening and invited him to come to his campsite just up the road a ways and share his supper of fried fish.  Just like that.  No questions asked.  No checking of identification to see who this "stranger" even was.  Or what about only a week or so later, the couple and their son who realized that the heat of the day in south eastern Colorado was taking its toll on Norman as he pushed his cart near LaJunta.  They were the  people who passed him, then returned back to where he was with water for him to drink and the invitation to come to supper and rest at their home for the night.  Chance meetings?  Nah, no way.  I'm telling you friends~if you didn't believe in angels before.......

     Norm's journey has been a blessing to many people along the way but at the top of the list of beneficiaries shall always be the children, the kids who each day live with and die from cancer.  As a teacher for nearly 4 decades now, I have seen the ravages of childhood cancer take three students of my own.  Calvin and Elizabeth were two dear little people when I was their teacher in the first and second grade back at Yoder Grade School in Kansas.  A special boy named Adahir Juan was one of my students in our third grade classroom back at Avenue A Elementary in Hutchinson, Kansas.  Sadly all three of them passed away in their teenage years from the dreaded disease.  I spend each day with children and I look out at their little faces and pray that they don't have to worry about getting cancer.  Not in a million years.  Not EVER.

     Meeting Norman Horn that evening has been a blessing to me.  I've gained a whole new appreciation for my walking shoes and the fact that it doesn't kill anyone to park a little further away from the front door of WalMart or City Market or anywhere else.  I've learned how to talk to total strangers on the phone in places far, far away from me here in the Rocky Mountains and ask them if they would be willing to take Norm in for the night and set an extra place at their supper table for him.  There have been some answers of "No, we cannot" and I have learned that was the right answer to hear.  God was just telling me that I had not called the right person.  I only thought that I had.  There was someone else that He had in mind and sooner or later, I'd make the right call.  For all of the people who have helped in any way that one could imagine, I give my thanks.  I have to admit that sometimes I became frustrated in figuring out just who it was that God had in mind and since my gravestone shall not ever read, "Here lies Peggy "the patient one", well it was just a good lesson in perseverance.  I needed that.

     There is a great group of women who live back on the east coast of the United States who have worked hard to make sure that Norm was safe and well along the way.  It has been a privilege to meet them "vicariously" at this point in time through Facebook and online.  To Sara, Rachel, and Sylvia, I give you a huge "high five" from way out here on the other side of the Great Continental Divide.  These women work diligently each day to make sure that Norm's needs of shelter and food are taken care of.  I'm so glad to have been able in a small way to help out from time to time on their very special team.  Rachel and Sara, some day I will come east and meet you.  Of that I am most sure.  

     Sylvia and I will get the chance to meet here in Montrose in just a few short hours.  Back in late June as I joined their online team of folks working to get Norm housing,  Sylvia and I began to talk.  In one of our very first conversations we spoke of where we lived.  When I told her that I now lived in Montrose she was so surprised.  Sylvia told me that her family was coming to Telluride (just up the road an hour or so) in early September and that they were actually flying into Montrose.  We knew three months ago that we would be able hopefully to meet and today before they return back to their home in Pennsylvania, two women who were strangers before shall be strangers no more.  You could call it a weird "coincidence" if you want but I have come to learn that there is no such thing as a chance encounter.  As it always in my life, each day my part of the "plan" plays out.  It was God's intention that I would meet this great group of folks.  I have been blessed beyond measure.

     Norman will have finished his walk by October the 11th.  Life will probably return to normal for him some day but I'm going to make a wild guess here and say that even though it returns back to some semblance of whatever "normal" was,  that one thing will be for sure.  Norman Horn will never forget the year he walked across America to raise awareness of pediatric cancer.  Not everyone can do that, you know?  But here's the thing~we can all do something.

     To my friend Norman~I say a heartfelt "thank you".

     

   It wasn't always easy, in fact sometimes it was very hard.  But....Norman did not quit!