#FightLikeHell

Round 2 of chemo began today, and like the true champ that she is, Nan rocked her new tee shirt emblazoned with the new family motto:

Fight Like Hell

Just a scant few hours after completing her second round of chemo, mom was talking and told a great story.  Mom was feeling eyes on her all day from one of the nurses on the floor who wasn’t her own nurse.  After seeing her looking in at mom a few times, she finally came in to remark that she loved mom’s shirt, and thought it perfectly epitomized her spirit.

Mom has never been a physically formidable woman, but she’s always walked amongst the biggest of men when it comes to her spirit. There are more stories of her tenacity and fight than any simple blog post could ever recall.  For a woman who could fit inside a carry on, she has the heart of a giant.  I’m sure that’s why I married the pitbull of a wife that I married, because I found some of those qualities in her that I respect and admire more than I can ever put into words.  My mother’s strength, and willingness to FIGHT LIKE HELL when she’s needed to most of all has helped to make me the man I’ve become today.   I will never quit,  I will never give up, and there’s never been a fight I’m too scared to take head on.

The shirts started as a cute way to show our support for mom, but it’s blossomed into far, far more than that.  It’s become our motto, our rallying cry.  Today, her account tweeted

Chemo round 2 underway now #fightlikehell

Admittedly, Scott sent this tweet (which completely bummed be out, because I thought mom had already learned about hashtage).  It did come with editorial approval from mom, so at least we know she saw it.  I talked to her tonight, and laughed at her ability to quickly brush off the question as to how she’s doing, and immediately begin asking me how me and my wife are.  Mom made it through today and is feeling much, much better than two weeks ago, making it almost difficult to remember that she spent 6 hours in a chair getting chemo today.  Her ability to get back up is something we could all take a lesson in.

Dad asked for information on where he could buy the shirts that the Hinds’ in MA, NC and AL are rocking every other Monday.  The stock was low at the Finish Line, but they are available here, where you can get a Livestrong Fight Like Hell shirt.  If you do happen to get one, please take a picture and send it in to TeamNanHinds@gmail.com so we can post the pictures here for mom to see.

Please know that we’re getting zero revenue from this link.  We happened to find the shirts at Finish Line in Natick, MA, and from the sounds of things, they aren’t widely available.  If you want to join in, online seems to be the only place we can find them.

The inspiration of the finish line

From Dad directly:

“I have attached a picture from the Autism run in October.  Michelle got it from the Autism society and I had it blown up and matted.  Then all the people working on LCS 4 signed the mat for her.  The idea is that Mom took on a mission for Sam that she didn’t think she could accomplish.  This was to remind her that she could do whatever she put her mind to even if she didn’t believe herself capable.  The messages of support have been inspirational to her.  I think this might also be something to post on her website.” -Dad

No question about that…

-Todd

The Story of the Stickers, and the birth of Team NSH

Like a lot of things, it all comes back to the Patriots.

I run another website which had inexplicably been all but shut down on Google Search rankings in early December.  After a couple months of a 90% traffic drop I’d all but given up on the resurrection of the site.

True to her spirit, Nan remained ever positive.  She checked google daily looking for various search requests to see if we’d come back yet.  I told her not to bother anymore, because it was out of my hands, and really looked like the site was toast.  After her repeated calm reassurances that the site would bounce back, with me admittedly not listening, Mom’s tone finally changed the Friday before the Super Bowl.

“It’s going to come back.  I know it.  You know it, so don’t you dare quit on this site yet,” she said in an equally loving and stern tone.

With far more important matters at hand, I didn’t fight back to argue that logically, things looked bleak, and it was out of my hands.  I left the conversation there, but her words stuck with me.

Fast forward two days to Super Bowl Sunday, which is traditionally our biggest traffic day of the year.  Somewhat nervous over how bad traffic might be, I never logged on to see how our traffic looked.  Later that day, the site co-owner Craig, texted me excitedly to announce that it looked like we were back in the game.   After a week of fully restored traffic, I began joking with him that Nan willed us back in the game and related our resurrection to myth of how the Patriots got to the Super Bowl this year.

“If Myra H. Kraft helped push the Ravens field goal wide left, then Nan S. Hinds helped put our site back on the map,” I emailed Craig.

“So are you going to get NSH patches and wear them on your shirt like the Patriots did all season?”

2 weeks later,… I most certainly am.

Team NSH was born there.  The Patriots honored their matriarch all season by wearing a simple blue patch with MHK emblazoned in white text.  Clean, understated, elegant, and classy.  Four words that aptly describe Nan if you ask me, and the perfect way to honor our matriarch.

This simple email conversation I had with Craig when I should have been working, may have wound up as the best misuse of company time ever.  It spawned Team NSH; the site, the stickers (which we have plenty of, and will be getting out to anyone interested), and it’s gotten mom on Twitter.   Pretty effective emails if you ask me.

If you’re interested in stickers, shoot me a note at TeamNanHinds@gmail.com and we’ll get them out as requests come in.

-Todd

Welcome to Team Nan Hinds (Team NSH)

Welcome!

Welcome to the online source for all things Nan Hinds, while she begins her courageous journey through chemo.

As Nan’s support group has spread over a half dozen states, we decided it was time to bring all the updates together in one place (and while we could have done something close to this on Facebook, her youngest son still refuses to join).  With hundreds of people from Harmony ME to Daphne AL and everywhere in between, we thought this could serve as a great forum to put together updates, share anecdotes, and collect everyone in one place to celebrate all things Nan Hinds.

On the top of the page, we’ve set up our Twitter feed.  I have put Mom in charge of this, and have confidence that between both of her sons help, she will figure out how to tweet.  I’m not quite sure what we can expect from Mom’s tweets, but I know that they will be sincere, probably entertaining, and if you watch closely enough, I’m sure she’ll send some “pocket-tweets” without even realizing it.  You can all follow her on Twitter @TeamNanHinds

Also, if you’d like to contact the site, we have an email, TeamNanHinds@gmail.com .  Feel free to share pictures, videos or anything you think might be a good add to the site.

That’s it for now.  More posts to come.  Bookmark us, keep up to date, and feel free to leave comments below.  I’ll make sure Mom/Nan sees them all.

-Todd

The Hinds Family, 9/4/2011