“Grief doesn’t just bring tears. It enters your heart, your bones, your spirit, every movement and breath you take. Losing our daughter Cynthia Dawn’s fiancé, Daniel Blanchard, in 2019 to mesothelioma brought such agony to his parents, Edward and Maria Blanchard, and their family, as well as heartbreak to ours. The Blanchards suffered a loss no parent wants to experience, and Dawn faced the loss of the love of her life.

“Dawn had reconnected with Daniel in the fall of 2018. When she was a freshman at Baytown Lee High School, she had a crush on Daniel, but never told him. Ironically, a mutual hairstylist, Raphael Melendez, shared the story of Dawn’s crush with Daniel. Daniel called Dawn, and that phone call turned into a powerful love story.

“Both Cynthia Dawn and Daniel were living their own survival stories filled with incredible pain and medical obstacles. They understood what it was like to greet every morning with questions, doctors, hospitals, fear, hope and setbacks.

“Daniel had been diagnosed in 2013 with mesothelioma. Dawn was diagnosed with lupus in 1995 at the age of 20. Her original diagnosis would change, become a question mark, but ultimately would fall into the catch-all autoimmune disease, until it was finally labeled granulomatosis with polyangiitis. In 2008 she was diagnosed with kidney cancer, which resulted in the loss of her left kidney.

“With all they had suffered, were suffering, none of it diminished the light and love they shared. They literally lit up a room with their smiles and joy.

“Then on Jan. 26, 2022, the unthinkable agony of grief hit again with our family and the Blanchards. Our Cynthia Dawn, our Wonder Woman, who had lived 27 years with devastating disease, gave her last breath as one of her favorite songs played, ‘Magic,’ by Olivia Newton-John. Our families were again joined by the grief of losing a child.

“In the days following Dawn’s death, my husband, Charlie, our youngest daughter, Carrie, and I barely functioned. All we could do was put one foot in front of the other. All we could ask one another was, ‘What do we do now?’

“In an attempt to do something other than cry, Charlie and I started making earrings. It was something we had done prior to the COVID pandemic. We even attended events where we sold them. Creating became therapeutic. It was as if wire and beads became a guide to help us move forward.

“One day Carrie said, ‘You have so many of them now. Why don’t you give them away, because the act of giving is healing.’ That is how our project we’ve titled ‘4 Cynthia Dawn’ began.

“We knew Dawn and Daniel wouldn’t want to be remembered for their illnesses. They were two people filled with so much life and accomplishment. That is the story they would want told. It is an inspiring story of moving forward when life is doing everything it can to stop you. So we give away the earrings we make with hope whomever receives them will share the story, be encouraged when they wear them, or perhaps pass the gift on to someone else who needs encouragement.

“Dawn and Daniel’s story is one of love, passion to move forward, to not give up or give in to despair. Our families, the Blanchards and the Clevengers, want others to know what it was like to be Dawn Wonder Woman and Daniel Strong. So here’s a little about what each accomplished while battling illness.

“Dawn attended University of Houston, where she was co-president of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society at UH. She interned for Houston City Council, as well as Galveston-Houston Association of Smog Prevention. In 2007 Dawn was selected by Senator Rodney Ellis to serve as a Texas state legislative aide. In December 2007, she graduated magna cum laude with double bachelor of arts degrees in political science and communications-journalism. She later went to work for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, where she oversaw the Back the Bay Program. She worked with TV and radio as well as developed PSA posters aimed at improving the environmental quality of Galveston Bay by increasing the public’s awareness of the bay’s value. The campaign was later revamped, and Dawn promoted the slogan, ‘What Happens in Houston, Ends Up in Galveston Bay.’ She loved to travel. Twice she journeyed to London and once to Australia alone, to explore both destinations. Dawn wasn’t concerned about traveling without friends or family. She knew wherever she went, there were strangers waiting to become friends.

“After his devastating diagnosis of mesothelioma, Daniel created his motto for life, ‘Live Life Forward,’ and he did that with passion. He did it knowing his disease was terminal. He did it while taking chemotherapy. He skydived, traveled to Italy, and in 2016 became a marathon runner. He ran 15 full and half-marathons, which included the Houston-Galveston area, Austin, San Antonio as well as Big Sur in California. His chemotherapy sessions at MD Anderson Cancer Center connected him with strangers who all had a story to tell, and a need for encouragement. Daniel would listen to them, learn a bit about them, and even on the days when he wasn’t getting his own chemotherapy, he would return with gifts, give encouragement, and sit with those who were facing the biggest struggle of their lives. Daniel didn’t just speak about love, he lived it.”

— Susie Clevenger

The post Earring project helps keep couple’s story alive appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I had my heart set on a Basset Hound. But then we looked at this breed of dog I had never heard of, called a Rat Terrier. In that moment, I knew I was not going home with a Basset Hound. It ended up being one of the best decisions of my life.

“Samson came at a pivotal time. All my friends were dating somebody or getting married or having kids. While they were having these big life events, he was that thing in my life that I could be proud of. He was sort of my big life event.

“We kind of grew up together. I was in my early 20s, trying to find myself. He was my ride-or-die buddy. He went everywhere with me.

“It was a transitional time for me. I went to college in Alabama, then moved back to Texas, away from all my college friends. So he kind of filled that hole for me.

“As a puppy, he was really fun and goofy. As he got older, he developed this very serious personality. For a while, he was my registered emotional support animal. If I was having a panic attack or anxiety attack, he would sense it and come stand by me.

“When my husband and I got together, we were two pretty stupid young kids unprepared for marriage. We had a difficult time at the start. If we were arguing, Samson would come and stand between us. He would provide that wall of separation, that wall of peace. My husband would recognize it as, hey, we both need a moment here.

“We’ve been married 15 years, and we struggled with infertility. So, quite frankly, Samson was like my child. I babied him.

“It may sound crazy, and it probably is, but I found a lot of my identity through him. Not only did he help me grow up, he helped me get through some really difficult times in my life.

“A couple days before he passed, I had a going-away party for Sam. I wanted to give everybody a chance to love on him. It got very emotional.

“I have this hole in my heart now. Some people may not understand. They may think, oh, he’s just an animal, just a dog. But he was so much more than that to me. We had this connection that you couldn’t understand unless you experienced it.

“Even though I love all my other dogs, there will never be another Samson. He was that once-in-a-lifetime pet.”

— Trina Hattenstein

The post ‘There will never be another Samson’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“When you’re on the street by yourself, it feels pretty worthless. I don’t want to be here. It gets very lonely. I’ve been very depressed. I cry myself to sleep every night. I just wish I could find somebody to love me as much as I can love somebody else.

“Somehow, I still make myself laugh. It’s complicated. It felt insane at first. But it makes me feel better. Having a sense of humor. Laughing at things that hurt me worse.”

What’s the hardest thing you’ve been through?
“I don’t know. Everything. But it ain’t going to break me. Because I’m already broken. I’ve been broken for years.

“I’ve still got faith. It’s very small. But I’ve got it.”

The post Being homeless ‘feels pretty worthless’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I was 18 at the time we met, and he was 28. So I didn’t really get to experience many things that other people experience before getting into a relationship. Like dating and just doing different things as a single person.

“I feel like I kind of grew up and matured as part of someone else and not as my own person. At some point I realized, I don’t really love myself. I needed to learn to do that. So after about 7 1/2 years together, we split.

“It wasn’t a bad breakup. It was somewhat of a mutual agreement. We still remained friends. So close to where I could call him if I was having a rough time with my new relationship. And vice versa, he could call me. It was always respectful. It was never ‘I miss you’s’ and all that.

“He ended up splitting with his partner. My split came a few months later. Then at some point it was like, ‘Do you ever miss us?’ And it was one of those ‘I never stopped thinking about you’ kind of things.

“So after a little over two years apart, we gave it another shot. I don’t want to say it’s perfect, because nobody’s perfect. But it’s been damn near perfect ever since. The most that we ever argue about is who cheated at the video game.

“If we ever have an instance where we don’t see eye to eye, we stop right then and there, and we talk about it. We take time to understand each other. I think our willingness to see the other person’s point of view and to compromise is something that all relationships should have.

“I’m very, very happy that we’re back together. I’m in a happy place right now. We’re aiming to get married next July. I feel like it’s a confirmation that this time, it’s really forever.”

— Chris Champion (with Timothy Agar)

Related:

• Singer tries to spread positivity

• Patti LaBelle fan enjoys experience of a lifetime

The post ‘I feel like this time, it’s really forever’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“One day, we were both at a party. He came up to me and said, ‘Do you want to dance?’ He looked so handsome. So I said, ‘Yes.’ That’s how we met.

“I was 18 or 19 years old. I saw him before in the town. I knew he was a very nice person and from a good family. I knew he worked very hard. The next day, we went for a walk. We talked a lot. The next three days, we were girlfriend and boyfriend. When I talked with him, I knew that I loved him.

“We’re from Guadalajara, Mexico. He was working here before we got married. And I was going to university in Mexico, so I was a little busy. We stayed in touch. He would call me. He would write letters. But it was hard, being away from him.”

“Every three months, I would go back to Mexico to see her. It was not too easy because I didn’t have legal papers then. It was scary. But I found a way each time, and then I came back here to work again.”

“He loved me so much. He said he wanted to marry me. So we got married in Mexico, and we came here to live. We are legal U.S. citizens. We did it together four years ago. It took a very long time to get our papers. But it was worth it.

“I’ve worked in daycare for 20 years. He works in the plants. We have two daughters. One is a nurse. The other is in engineering. We’re so happy for them and so proud of what they’ve accomplished. That’s why we’re here. It’s a better life for them and for us.”

— Fanny and Eulalio Zepeda

Related:

• Nurse daughter caring for COVID patients

The post Love takes them from Mexico to U.S. appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I grew up in a household where I never saw affection. Well, I saw it from one individual, the female, but not from the male. He was always too macho.

“It was a physically abusive environment. Not toward me, but the female. When I saw the abuse, it made me sad. You hear about kids stepping in, and the person stops. Or sometimes they get smacked around, too. I was too afraid to do anything. I only got hit once. But that’s all it took to wise up.

“As I got older, I got into a lot of fights. I was really wild in my teens. I was mischievous, or maybe just foolish.

“When I was 22, I met the woman who would become my wife. We started going out, and I fell in love with her. I told her I was going to make her fall in love with me. And I accomplished that. We were together for almost 20 years, married for 12. We had two kids together.

“I married her because I cared for her and loved her. But it never felt quite right inside. It was great in the beginning. But I had so much stuff bottled up from my past that I began pushing her away.

“Growing up, I didn’t see people in my family going to therapy or marriage counseling. I had a lot of confusion about how a man should treat a woman, and how to be in a relationship.

“After she left me, after our divorce, I was really sad. She found someone else and remarried. I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love again. I did, but it didn’t work out.

“Before we got married, my ex-wife and I took a class through the Catholic church. One thing the priest said was, ‘Don’t let the sun set on your anger.’ But a lot of times while we were married, I would go to bed angry. It was aimed toward my wife, but it wasn’t her fault. It was the different things I experienced growing up that were coming through. I regret my actions, and I’ve apologized to her.

“When I was a kid, I had this vision. It was of an old man, and he looked real sad. I thought that was going to be me in the future, all alone, never married, never having kids. I ended up doing both those things. And I love my kids. While it may not all have turned out as perfect as I wanted, it’s still something.”

Related:

• ‘What’s a beautiful memory for you was a nightmare for me’

The post ‘I had a lot of confusion about how a man should treat a woman’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“We’re a combined family. He has seven kids from his previous marriage and I have two. I also have custody of my two grandkids, so together we have 11. Eight of them live at home.

“After being off almost a whole year, we’re both blessed to be working now. I mean, we’re still struggling. Because of 2020, I think lots of people are going to be struggling for a while. We’re slowly creeping back up to the surface. Right now, we’re trying to hang on to our home.

“Like everyone else, we had some issues during the winter storm. We were without power for two days. So we lit a bonfire in our firepit, and the neighbors came over. We sat outside around the fire and talked. We lit candles. The kids played hide and seek in the dark. Our fireplace has gas, so that really helped. We turned it on, and all the kids slept in the living room to stay warm.

“We were without water for five days. So we were going to our neighbor’s house to shower, and we were using her pool to flush the toilets. She lives by herself, and she didn’t know how to light her fireplace. So we did that for her, and we helped flush her toilets and stuff. We were going back and forth a lot, helping each other. Our neighborhood is pretty great that way.

“My husband, Michael, isn’t a plumber, but he’s pretty handy. I always pick at him because it seems like he hoards stuff in the garage. But it actually came in handy this time. He was able to help out several people in our community with their plumbing issues, including a neighbor who’s a veteran. Seeing him come home from work at 6 p.m., suiting up and helping people without his hand out asking for something in return, I literally fell in love with him all over again.”

— Shannon Moore

Shannon and Michael got married on Nov. 16, 2019. They have yet to take their honeymoon cruise, which has been canceled three times due to the pandemic.

The post ‘I literally fell in love with him all over again’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

Roger: “I hadn’t seen my two brothers in Michigan in quite a while, so I went up there to visit. One day while I was driving to the park, I noticed a woman whose car was broke down on the side of the road. It was where three busy highways came together. Somehow I was able to go from the far left-hand lane all the way across to where she was before any other cars came by.”

Pat: “I was a single mom. I had three kids. I had bought a cheap car, and I needed to put an exhaust system on it. I didn’t have anybody to help me, so I learned how to do it myself. Every once in a while, it would come loose. We were on our way to a picnic when it happened again. I was getting under there to tighten it up when he came by. I kind of hid behind my car at first. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. He said he had some better tools than I had. When he opened his trunk and I saw the tools, I was a little relieved.”

Roger: “Growing up, I watched my dad do everything. He said I needed to learn how to fix things. So I started working on cars and building race cars. I became a mechanic. I was head mechanic at a lot of garages through the years. So it took maybe 10-15 minutes to fix her up.”

Pat: “He asked for my phone number. I thought, well, I’m not telling him where I live, but I guess I’ll give him my number. I figured he’d never call me. How many guys are going to call a woman with three kids? I just kind of laughed it off. But he did call a few days later. We just started talking, and he asked me to a show at the drive-in. Then he started taking me and the kids fishing and different things. He had to come back to Texas, and he was down here for probably six months when he called and asked if I wanted to join him. So I did. I moved down with my kids, two boys and a girl. It just felt right. I don’t know how else to explain it. We started living together. And then five years later, we got married. We met on June 23, 1980, and we got married on June 23, 1985. We did it on the same day on purpose. We both had gone through a bad divorce. So we just wanted to make it something special that hopefully would last. And so far, it has.”

— Pat and Roger Williamson

Helping others, like his future wife 41 years ago, is nothing new for Roger. At 75, he continues lending a hand to friends and strangers alike. He helped several people with plumbing issues during the recent winter storm. Also an avid fisherman, Roger has been known to catch and donate hundreds of pounds of catfish to support various fundraising efforts.

The post Mechanic fixes his way to her heart appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I’ve learned so much about the coronavirus, like how you can carry it without knowing and pass it along to others. That makes it very difficult to see and track.

“My sister, mom and dad all agreed to limit physical contact from different households due to my parents’ age and medical history. That doesn’t mean we won’t hug each other, since you can’t really fight love. But we are very disciplined about it.

“My sister and I talk on the phone to stay updated with daily life, and to make sure we’re both OK emotionally and financially. My mom will come by with her mask on, and sit in her car in my driveway while we visit.

“We’re all doing a lot of video chatting. My parents are both deaf. My mom and I do mostly sign language and lip reading. My dad and I use sign language and talking. It’s a little rough when we’re FaceTimeing, and the signal on our phones is bad. In person, it’s much easier to communicate.

“It’s weird having to be distant, though. We all love each other very much. So it’s heart-breaking knowing you can’t be as close as you want to be. But in the end, it’s not worth the risk of losing someone.”

— John Willey

Related:

• She gains freedom from the sounds of silence

The post Social distancing can be heart-breaking appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I was working at Walmart on the night shift, but I was going to move to days because my shift got real boring. So out of curiosity I was thinking, there have to be some cute girls on the day shift, right? Like, somebody.

“I kept hearing the name Hunter float around. So when I moved to the day shift I was like, I’ve got to find that girl with Hunter on her name tag.

“I was working in receiving, and we had 20-something people on our team. I was looking for someone who fit the description: a 5-foot-5 or 5-foot-6 blond girl with blue eyes. I figured that shouldn’t be too hard. But it took me two days because she was off my first day on the shift.

“That next day, I saw her in the break room. She was sitting there eating a bag of strawberry-flavored jelly beans. I asked her if it was OK if I sat down, and she said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t exactly know what to say after that. She was the first one to really speak up. She said, ‘Hey, would you like some jelly beans?’ And I was like, ‘Sure.’

“So our relationship started with jelly beans. Now here we are, about two years later, and we’re engaged.”

— Marcus Cerda (with Hunter Hinnant)

The post Relationship begins with jelly beans at Walmart appeared first on The Baytown Project.