Friday, July 26, 2013

NYC Bike Tour: RIDE FOR TEAM McGORTY!


Please join in the NYC Century Bike Tour on September 8th, 2013 and ride for Team McGorty!

Great for families and avid cyclists alike, riders of the NYC Century Bike Tour have the option of riding 15, 35, 55, 75, or 100 miles...and the best part is that 100% of all race entry fees for registered Team McGorty riders go to The McGorty Family Fund!


In lieu of the online race registration, all riders who wish to join Team McGorty are asked to donate a minimum of $65 to The McGorty Family Fund via WePay. Register NOW at  www.mcgortyfamilyfund.com and use WePay to pay make your donation (not via the NYC Century Bike Tour page). When registering via WePay, please include a note on the third/last page of the WePay donation process (e.g. NYC Century Bike Tour Registration Fee). Riders will then receive a follow-up email with additional information regarding race day and logistics.

REGISTER NOW!

For more information about the NYC Century Bike Tour, click here: http://nyccentury.org
For more information about the NYC Century Bike Tour Map & Route Descriptions, click here: http://nyccentury.org/event_info/map

This event is sponsored by Transportation Alternatives (NYC's leading transportation advocacy organization); however, a VERY SPECIAL acknowledgment must go out to Leila Mady who has coordinated the fundraising opportunity for Team McGorty. Leila is a medical student at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School and met Dennis and Anita during Dennis' stay at University Hospital in Newark. An integral part of Team McGorty, we are so grateful to have Leila on our Team!

If you have any questions about the event, please email Leila Mady (mady.leila@gmail.com).

FYI, there will also be a jersey available for purchase with all proceeds benefiting Team McGorty. Stay tuned for more details.

As always, thank you for all of your continued support!

Disclaimers: This is an unofficial organized ride and rider's participation is 100% voluntary, Team McGorty, Transportation Alternatives, and or Leila Mady are not responsible for any injuries resulting from accidents, altercations, natural events (wildlife, domestic animals), or weather.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Novena for Dennis - Please Join Us


There will be a novena for Dennis starting July 18 at 7:30 am. Novenas are a series of prayers said by a group for nine days straight, at the same time each day, and with a specific intention. Details for this novena are as follows:

St. Thérèse, "The Little Flower"
When: starting Thurs, July 18 at 7:30 a.m. Specific prayers to be said each day of the nine days, at the same time each day.

Where: to accommodate for distance, there is no specific gathering location for this novena. Those who'd like to take part can do so wherever they are.

Intention: strength and healing for Dennis McGorty and his family.

Prayers: we will be praying the St Therese The Little Flower Novena.

Prayers for each day can be found here:
http://www.ewtn.com/therese/novena.htm


We would be so very grateful to anyone who could join us in this effort. There is power in numbers, and we know that our Team is strong.

Thank you everyone for your continued support, love, and prayers!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Crazy

A few days after the accident Dennis and I made a pact to be the crazy people. In fact, we even pinky swore on it. We made a vow to see this as a road to recovery and figure out a way to come back regardless of odds or absolutes that were presented—and without regard for how crazy people would inevitably think we were for thinking it was possible.

If I had any reservations on whether or not I was holding up my end of our “crazy” bargain, I felt confirmation last week when I found myself hiding in our shower. Dennis had just called to let me know there were reports of a tornado in our area. At Kessler where he is doing his rehab they had brought everyone into a designated safe area. He had called to let me know to do the same. I hung up the phone and panicked. I had no idea where in our house to go in case of tornado. You don’t have these drills growing up in New Jersey. And I was in the middle of packing up our house so we can move out and renovate the house. Stuff was everywhere. Everything we ever owned suddenly looked like a boulder that would do me in if a twister came through. Then I thought of the shower stall. I ran to it and crouched down. Terrified I hung out there for about 30 seconds. I then got up, grabbed an empty moving box, my Surface, phone and car keys and headed back to my shower/tornado shelter.

My thinking was I needed to be able to check local reports of what was going on, possibly simultaneous to making a call, have something to cover me from hurled objects, and if for some reason I needed to get out of there quickly, I had my keys in case I decided the best thing to do would be to run for my car. All likely flawed thinking in one way or another if in fact I was faced with a tornado (which luckily it turned out I wouldn’t be that day). What I did takeaway from that experience was that when faced with a crisis, give yourself a minute to FREAK OUT—and then quickly move on to making a plan—even, or depending on the situation, especially, a crazy one.

For now, our plan is to be vigilant about getting smart on a new world of different studies, experts, approaches. It’s a manic mad dash to try and learn everything, synthesize the information overload, and make decisions of where to put our focus. Nothing is as simple as a medicine or a surgery. Everything is a multiyear investment with heavy dose of leap of faith versus hard data on what would be the best option. Talk to six different experts and they will tell you six different things as to what is the most promising up and coming thing. You spend everyday rushing around trying to manufacture a miracle. At the end of each day it’s unclear whether we’ve moved forward on that front or if we’ve just been running around in circles, right back where we started. It’s definitely enough to make you feel crazy.

But that’s okay. We’ve found that crazy can be infectious. With many of the doctors, advisors, etc., we speak to they often ask “why do you…ask that question, need that report,” and so on. Our answer is always the same. “Because you are about to be a part of a success story.” They smile and then oblige every time with another piece of the puzzle we are trying to put together. We will hold up our end of the bargain too—with a successful outcome for us all.

As for this week, we begin another chapter. Dennis comes home this week. He leaves Kessler tomorrow and is coming home to our new, albeit temporary, home. The family will be back living together for the first time in eight weeks. The kids are thrilled that daddy is coming home and they break into a 10-minute dance celebration every time one of them brings it up.

From there it is on to outpatient rehab, starting next week. For Dennis, more working out, more opportunity to fire up the inner warrior, and for both of us, new opportunity to bring to life our pact to “be the crazy people.”