A Sad Week

Cancer.

There's been too damn much of it around the Weekly during the last handful of years. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least five folks around the office who have been stricken with serious cancer--colon cancer, breast cancer and leukemia. It's been awful.

Until last week, we'd been blessed, because everyone had managed to make it through. But last Tuesday, we lost Susan Sykes. Beautiful, vibrant and almost always smiling, Sykes was an amazing person. She was a Weekly ad rep from October 2000 through February of this year, when she decided to move on to another gig. Within a couple of months, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

And now, she's gone. Her sister, Jennifer Powers-Murphy, described her death as "devastating."

Chris Limberis, a member of the Weekly's cancer fraternity, said it best. To paraphrase: When almost anybody dies, folks tend to gush about how the deceased was kind, wonderful, amazing, etc. But in Susan's case, you can believe all of the gushing by her family, her friends, her co-workers. She was that special.

A celebration of Susan's life is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. It will be held at the First Christian Church, located at Euclid Avenue and Speedway Boulevard. And on Aug. 24, her life will be further celebrated at Songs for Susan, a benefit featuring 28 bands at seven different venues. It's a fundraiser to help pay her medical bills.

For more information on Susan's life, check out her obituary in this issue. Also, be sure to pick up the Weekly next week for more details on Songs for Susan.