Tory Ryden interviews Angela Black during the third annual Dempsey Challenge. Like so many who experience the event, Ryden is deeply moved by the stories shared by participants. (Tracy Rousseau photo)
This was my third year at the Dempsey Challenge. All three years, I have participated in the Challenge in very different ways. All from the perspective of Storyteller. My first year I covered the Dempsey Challenge as a journalist from Channel 8; the past two years as a marketing and video production professional at Parkview Adventist Medical Center in Brunswick. What binds the three years are the stories, so many stories that I have heard and recorded along the many routes that comprise the Dempsey Challenge: the running, walking, cycling routes that dot the Maine countryside.
As a Storyteller, the most difficult part of the Challenge is not being able to hear, and record, everyone’s story. They are all, without a doubt rich, mixed with stirring, tragic, triumphant details.
One story shook me to the core. It happened on Sunday, while my videographer and I were traveling the 100 mile loop of the cycling event. The route extends from Lewiston west to Harrison, at the furthest end of Long Lake. En route, we stopped at rest areas, talking with volunteers as they handed out much appreciated bottles of water and Gatorade, plus fruits, energy gel-packs, sandwiches and bars. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a photo of a beautiful brunette with smiling eyes planted on the back of a cyclist’s racing shirt. The man, in his late 30’s was quick to share his story.
The beautiful brunette was his wife. She was 32 when a rare form of cancer stole her from this life. She left him with four children. Four young children. “They were 1, 3, 5 and 7 when she died.” I felt that I’d been kicked in the stomach. My eyes welled up and I asked, “So, you are raising them on your own?” He answered that he’s lucky. He has family and friends around and he relies on all of their help. But he’s lonely. His eyes told me that. “It’s hard. But I do it. I do it for the kids. I do it for my wife,” he said. He also told me he carried her in his heart, every mile of the way. I told him she’d be proud of him. He smiled and thanked me. And then he pedaled off, back on his 100 mile journey.
At another stop I met up with two cyclists who were riding for a woman who’s become a friend of mine: Angela. They all work together at Bath Iron Works. So far, they’ve raised $5,000. They’re determined to raise more. But it doesn’t end there. Angela’s cancer requires her to drive down to Boston every other week so she can take part in trial tests at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The tests take two days which means Angela must stay in a hotel for the overnight. Although she’s worked at BIW and been paid through her five year battle with Stage 4 breast cancer, the additional hotel bills are, Angela admits, difficult to cover. “So, we decided to pool our money together,” one of the “Team Angela” cyclists shared with me. “We told Angela that we didn’t want her to pay for her hotel. We’d take care of that bill.” And, they’ve followed through with that promise.
Every week, more than a handful of employees at BIW give up part of their paycheck, and have it re-routed to Angela. “I can’t imagine what she’s going through. She shouldn’t have to worry about a hotel bill. She’d do the same for us,” reflected a second cyclist. Angela later told me that these co-workers are more like family to her than mere work buddies. “I don’t know how I could have gotten this far without them. My cancer has spread to my liver and they are all behind me 100 percent. They’re amazing.” In this storyteller’s eyes, every side of that equation is amazing.
Following year one, year two, and now year three of the Dempsey Challenge, I have found that the stories hang onto me. I dive back into my own life yet cannot clear the many amazing images from the Challenge that pop into my head as I drive, as I do the laundry, as I cook dinner. In the mundane, I am moved by the profound stories I was honored to hear, to record. I am in awe of these men, women and children who, through absolute horror, and pain, and struggle, carry themselves with grace, uncompromising grace. And courage. Most of all, they carry with them an unflappable quality of hope that somehow gets them through this day and the next, until we see them at the next Dempsey Challenge.
