Tamara Wilson had a simple wish: “To see the fireflies.”
The 67-year-old Roseville resident has spent the last year — following her terminal diagnosis of renal cell cancer — embracing life with a trip to Yosemite, fun holiday celebrations and daily phone conversations with family members.
Wilson took inspiration from Tim McGraw’s song, “Live Like You Were Dying.”
Doctors have now given her a few months to live, as she battles this type of kidney cancer. But for all her exploits, her ultimate dream remained out of reach until recently.
VOLGA — What if you were terminally ill and you had one last wish?
Barbour County cancer patient John Bennett is getting that one last wish, thanks to the Dream Foundation. He has terminal cancer and functions under hospice care at his Volga home he shares with wife Cyrena.
“I have no idea how much longer I have left. I just sit each day and worry when the next day will be,” he said.
“In the past year and a half I’ve seen him go through a lot that no woman should have to see her husband go through,” Cyrena said.
But Monday, the couple got a sweet Valentine from volunteers for the Dream Foundation: they’re sending the Bennetts on an all-access VIP trip to the Daytona 500, all for one reason.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The top item on Ed Demyan’s bucket list was seeing a Super Bowl in person — ideally with the Cleveland Browns playing.
Time is not on his side. Demyan, 47, was told in May he had Stage 3 pancreatic cancer. Despite chemotherapy and radiation treatment, it spread to his bones by November.
But the Browns didn’t fumble their chance. With their help and with the Dream Foundation, the nation’s first and oldest wish-granting organization for adults, Demyan will be at Super Bowl XLV on Sunday at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
“I was going to have surgery, then they told me it was cancerous,” he said. “For about 30 minutes, I was in shock. And then it was, ‘OK, what do we do?'”
The 47-year-old was diagnosed with Stage III pancreatic cancer in May. His condition is terminal. Doctors say Ed has months to live, leaving behind three daughters and family.
“I don’t know when it’s going to hit me, but why dwell on that? Why dwell on it? There’s nothing to dwell on. … Move forward,” he said.
So when his fiancee, MaryKaye, wanted to give him something special, she went to the Web. MaryKaye found the Dream Foundation, an organization that grants wishes to adults with terminal illnesses.
Through the Dream Foundation, a leukemia patient named Noelle lived out a dream of seeing Lady Gaga perform live. The night only got better when she later got to meet her singing idol backstage.
“Noelle’s eyes widened with excitement as Lady Gaga herself entered private waiting room to visit her. She had just danced and sang her booty off for two hours and now she was giving her time to Noelle. And time she gave. Having witnessed many meet and greets, I was thrilled that Lady Gaga shared with me the sense that there was no greater place to be than with Noelle in that moment,” wrote Thomas W. Rollerson of the Dream Foundation.