The early years

"As the years passed by I remained out in the backyard. Dan traded the 55 Chevy for a 56 Pontiac and in 19 and 67 ordered a new Pontiac Lemans with the HO 6 banger. He drag raced that car for a number of years winning more often then not. By the early 70s Dan married a gal named Janice and over the next few years proceeded to build a new home and start a family. I was then towed and parked out back of the new house, gosh I was in sad shape! My big thrill was being a winter home for the field mice ! At that point in time the family ride was a 72 Pontiac Bonneville .My, how things appeared to have changed. No more high performance anything."

" It was during this time frame that the emotional and financial strain was starting to take its toll on the entire family. However, Danielle had developed a fierce determiation to live and an attitude that was by some accounts the reason she did so well dispite her problems. "I am who I am, you don't like it,then it's your problem" she used to say. Her zest for life and makeing the most of it seemed to have rubed off on the rest of the family and kept them going."

"Between the side effects of the transplant (GVH) and the added round of chemotharpy the family traveled to New York city every 2 1/2 weeks for three years. At least one of every holiday was spent in the hospital or the Ronald McDonald House in New York. Not the best of times but not yet the worst."

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