Relay for Life Honduras

Last evening, our family participated in the Relay for Life here in La Ceiba. The US version of this event is a an all night walk-a-thon sponsored by the American Cancer Society. The La Ceiba version was a bit shorter. We were joined by about 15oo other adults and students from all over La Ceiba for a march down the street along the coast. In honor of Anne, we wore our Notch Your Average Cancer Fighters t-shirts. Ezekiel didn't have his own, but we dressed him in light blue so he could look like part of the team. He did a wonderful job in his stroller, and we enjoyed the beautiful evening walk for a good cause.


On April 19, the Colon Cancer Coalition will be sponsoring a "Get Your Rear In Gear" 5K walk/run in the Twin Cities. This year's children's race is dedicated to Anne. Anyone interested in learning more about this race (or a second race in the Chicago area) can visit the Notch Your Average Cancer Fighters team website . There will also be cool new shirts this year!

Remembering Anne

Its raining here in Honduras the morning I write these words to send comfort to my loved ones so far away. We would be with you if we could. But our son has other plans. We are waiting for him to enter the world and it could be any day now. When he is old enough I will tell him about his Aunt Anne, whose life we celebrate today.

I’ll tell him first how much I used to bother his aunt when she was a teenager. I used to sneak into her room after she left for school in the morning and listen to her Def Leopard and Run D.M.C. tapes. While I was standing in her room singing along I looked at all the pictures on the walls. These were pictures of really cool things. Because they were in Anne’s room. I risked her wrath to go through her stuff in the morning because anything she had was something worth knowing about.

I tell my son how I shaped my identity based on what I thought Anne would think was cool. She wore a jean jacket with little circular buttons on the lapel, I would do the same. I stole my sisters shoes and wore them to school. On more than one occasion. She was friends with boys who skateboarded. I would get a skateboard. I would get a flop haircut. Or at least comb what hair I had over my eyes in an approximation of a flop. I would look just like them. Because Anne thought they were cool. And the definition of cool was whatever Anne thought was cool.

Anne went off to school and I was left to figure out what was cool on my own for a few years. That didn’t work out very well for me, so I decided to follow Anne to college. She went to St. Ben’s and married a Johnnie named Jon. Anne told me that Jon lived on the fourth floor of St. Thomas Hall his freshman year at school. This she said, was the cool floor. And so it was. I met my best friend in the dorm room next door. He introduced me to my wife at the end of our freshman year.

I’ll tell my son these stories and hundreds more. This is just a small sample of Anne’s superpowers. I’ll tell him how Anne gave me three-hundred dollars one Christmas to buy presents for the rest of the family, so they wouldn’t think I was a deadbeat. This is not a loan, this is the kind of thing our dad would do, she told me.

I’ll tell him how much his aunt Anne would have liked to meet him in person. I know that she did, because she told me so. I told her that she was going to see him, that she was going to see everything. Because we know, in my family, that when someone leaves, they are never really gone. You just have to know where to look for them. That’s the trick.

So we’ll tell our little guy that if he wants to see aunt Anne’s smile, he can watch his uncle Jon play with his cousin Christopher. He’ll find it there. On two faces at once. If he wants to hear Anne’s laughter, he can tell a joke to his aunt Karen. He’ll hear Anne’s laugh. If he wants to understand Anne’s determination, he can go fishing with his Uncle Doug and his cousins Sam and Natalie. They’ll come home with monsters or a minnows, but they won’t give up. If he wants to hear Anne’s voice, he can listen to one of grandma’s stories.

He’ll find his aunt Anne in all of those places. But what I really want him to do is to look for his aunt in me. I want him to see me working as hard as she did to let her children know how much she loved them. I want him to see me doing all the things that Anne did to make those around her feel valued and important. I want him to see her in me everyday.

And I want him to ask me to tell stories about my big sister, Anne. I love telling stories about her. I stopped stealing her shoes and wearing them many years ago. But she is still my hero. He’ll see the light of her eyes shining through mine as I remember her. And he’ll be able to find her in that sparkle.

Anne Lewandowski Notch

My big sister died tonight. She fought an unbeatable cancer like a champion. We will all miss her so much. She has been my hero since I was very, very small.

Anne Lewandowski Notch
August 13, 1974 -January 14, 2009

Anne Lewandowski Notch: Fighter, Angler

My sister Anne is the toughest person I've ever met in my life.

Cancer patient, daughter land fishes of a lifetime in 24 hours
Jason Durham
Park Rapids Enterprise - 10/11/2008

“I’d like you to take my daughter-in-law out to catch a walleye.” The request, similar to those I receive almost daily throughout the summer, soon turned into something entirely different. “She’s never caught a walleye before and she wants to land one before she dies.” Sheri Notch of New Frontier Resort on Long Lake informed me that her daughter-in-law, Anne Notch, was battling stage-four colo-rectal cancer and catching a walleye was a goal yet to be accomplished.

Unfortunately, I was booked. I told Sheri to call good friend and fellow guide Jeremy Anderson of Jone’s Guide Service. Jeremy arranged a trip and I couldn’t wait to hear the results. I called him the night following their trip, hoping he would deliver good news. “The trip was canceled,” he said. “They called this morning. Anne was too sick to go.” It was just over a year ago today that Anne Notch, pregnant at the time, received her cancer diagnosis. “The doctors said I might have two years to live if my body responds positively to the chemotherapy,” Notch says. “My body has not responded.” A CAT scan last June showed the cancer had doubled in size.

Although I had never met Anne Notch, her plight stuck with me. Mid-August the phone rang and once again the voice on the other end was Sheri. “My daughter-in-law is coming back up at the end of the week. Is it possible to get her out fishing?” Once again, guide trips filled my week, but I suggested checking on Jeremy’s schedule. A few days later, while driving the boat in from a guide trip on Long Lake, I met Jeremy cruising out. We checked in with each other that evening, as we often do. “I had Anne Notch today,” he said.

During the first three hours of their four-hour trip, the fishing was pretty slow. They caught a few bass and northern pike, but no walleye. In the final hour Jeremy got a bite and fed the fish some line, assuming it was another bass. It turned out to be a 12-inch walleye. He was disappointed that he hadn’t let Anne catch that fish. Anne said, “I would be happy with a walleye like that; any walleye.”

Then the fishing gods smiled upon her. “She had a great hook-set,” Jeremy said during our conversation. “By the bend in her rod it looked like it was big, but I couldn’t tell how big.” After netting the walleye, the measuring tape told them exactly how big—27 ½ inches for her first walleye ever!

Once Anne’s five-year-old daughter Natalie saw the fish, she became enamored with walleye. “She spent 5 hours one day trying to catch a walleye and, even though she never lost focus, it didn’t happen,” Anne recalled. But the next day, after only 15-minutes on the water, young Natalie was proudly displaying a 24-inch walleye. Pilgrim’s Taxidermy will memorialize the two fish in a combination mount created for Anne and Natalie.

Anne’s one-year old son, Christopher, probably won’t remember the summer his mom and big sister each caught their first walleye, but 3-year-old brother Sam might. He now wants to catch a walleye and, additionally, would like to dress up as one for Halloween.


You can visit Anne's Caring Bridge website here.

Update II: La Casa Lewandowski

The painters have been working for almost 2 weeks. Today, when we got home, it seemed that our painter had only finished about 20 minutes of work in the 8 hours he was here. Fortunately for us, they get paid by the job and not by the hour. I am confused as to why someone would choose to waste so much time! Anyhow, they're finally done painting and it looks great! I just took the picture at dusk, so I'll post a better one tomorrow from daylight.

I'm posting this picture of my sister Anne here as she prepares to deliver her third child. We are really excited for the new baby. Sometimes its easy to be so far from home and sometimes its more difficult. This is one of the difficult times. We love you!!!