One of Keaton’s older brothers is currently getting a free
ride through college because he can throw a football approximately 4 miles... and
thread a needle with it. The University of
North Carolina came knocking on the Coker family’s door and the coaches took
our boy up to Chapel Hill. We were happy
for him, but were also left with a bit of a quandary. You see, we’d always been Blue Devil
fans. We like Duke. They play round ball in Durham, and their
coach is a fine member of the Long Gray Line.
We cheer for West Point grads around our house. Coach K is the reason we’ve always worn our blue
a few shades darker than the Carolina blue of UNC. These two shades of blue are NOT
compatible. Not at all. Anybody who knows anything about sports knows
THAT.
But NOW, there’s a UNC jersey with the name “Coker” on the
back. Number 11. And our loyalty is being tested. We love our nephew, so we’ve been wearing
lots of that “Carolina blue” lately around our house. (It’s actually more like Powder Blue, but they don’t like it when
you point that out…) And just as we were
finishing our detox of all things Blue Devil, the story goes and takes another turn.
Keaton is about to graduate from Flowery Branch High School,
and apparently he’s about to graduate from his current team of doctors at Egleston
and Johns Hopkins as well. They’ve been
a great team, and we’re grateful for them… but our boy has gone and become a
man. He dwarfs his doctors, and the
little plastic chairs in the Pediatric waiting room no longer provide a stable
base for his physique. So it’s time for
us to play at the next level.
You’d think the world of medicine would work a whole lot
differently than the world of major college football – but from my
observations, the two have a lot in common.
Keaton is being recruited. And we
need to decide what color jersey he’s going to wear. Cancer hospitals aren’t so different from
major colleges in the way they recruit. It's hard to get their attention at first, but once they find out ANOTHER hospital is looking at you... they get more aggressive in their recruiting.
Sloan-Kettering in New York would like to have Keaton. But they’re yankees… and that makes me think
of THE Yankees. Wrong sport. And we don’t really like pinstripes. Let’s face it, they’re not very manly. Sloan-Kettering will have to up their offer
to entice us to wear pinstripes.
MD Anderson in Texas would like to have Keaton. Longhorns.
Not a bad option truthfully. They
have good steaks and cowboy boots there. We really like big steaks - and what's better than a great pair of western boots? But really… who looks good in that awful Burnt Orange of the Longhorns? Serious drawback.
Then there’s the place in California. I think it’s San Francisco. Keaton is sporting longer hair these days and it's a great shade of brown. He also
looks great, from time to time, as a bald man.
But blonde? I just don’t see
it. California needs to sweeten their
offer before we turn our O-Lineman into a Surfer Dude.
Did I mention Duke yet?
Yep. The Blue Devils are in the
hunt. They’ve offered some serious cancer
smackdown talk and have promised moxi with their clinical trials. If you've followed this blog, … you know that we’re
fans of moxi in our family. I’m also lobbying
for them to throw in some basketball tickets at Cameron Indoor for Aunt
Marybeth… but so far, they haven’t taken that bait. It’s really the only missing component. We’d probably have a deal otherwise.
Emory isn’t taking all this transfer talk laying down, mind
you. They tell us they actually HAVE an
adult wing on their campus. (Who knew?) They
are scrambling to come up with a counter offer.
It’s too early to discuss publicly, and our agent has sworn us to
secrecy… but Emory is huddled up trying to entice us to stay with a promising clinical
trial of their own. Our interest is
piqued, but they’re moving slow and we’re attracted to speed.
Decisions.
Decisions. So many great Cancer
Hospitals. We’re thankful to HAVE
options to evaluate. Keaton’s last
workout for the medical staff of each of those hospitals went great. (Translation… his PET scan revealed that his
brain cancer is still contained in the brain.
It hasn’t spread to his spine or any other parts of his body that we are
deeming OUT OF BOUNDS. That makes him
more marketable.)
At the moment, we’re leaning toward the royal blue of Blue
Devil Nation… so what in the world will we do with all those powder blue
shirts? How can we possibly have a Coker
in each place?
Then there’s the matter
of the mascots. Nobody outside the state
of North Carolina REALLY knows what a Tar Heel IS exactly… but we pretend that
we do. I know the history, so spare me
the informative emails. But have you
taken a close LOOK at the mascot that is supposed to represent that rich
history? I don’t get it.
And for that matter… what exactly is a BLUE devil? Is it just a devil that pitched a toddler
tantrum and held his breath till he turned blue? That doesn’t seem worthy of Keaton’s calm,
cool demeanor to me.
So I’m proposing a solution.
Let’s just create a mascot called the Tar Devil. Maybe Joel Chandler Harris would lend us the
image of the Tar Baby. Close enough if
we add horns.
My kids love that story. But all good stories about the Tar Baby have to include a rabbit. Turns out… ours does. Hold on and I’ll connect the dots for you.
Last summer, I had the privilege of leading a small group “Mother/Daughter”
Bible Study. God definitely has a sense
of humor as I am personally devoid of BOTH of those qualifying components. My mom has been in
heaven for over four decades now… which is longer than she was ever on the
earth. And my house is teeming with
testosterone. Not a pink thing in
sight with my husband and two sons. Nevertheless, these mothers and
daughters – and me – circled up and studied scripture together. It was awesome.
The youngest daughter in the room was a little girl named
Kylie… not yet a teenager, but close.
She took notes and leaned in and hugged me a lot. Good grief, I was a goner. That girl had me wrapped around her little
finger in about two seconds flat. Each
time we gathered to study the bible, we also prayed for Keaton. These girls didn’t know Keaton personally –
as many of you don’t. But over the
summer, they became part of Keaton’s Warriors.
A month or so ago, Kylie’s knee started hurting. Inconceivably, a slight limp has turned into
a cancer diagnosis. She’s in the early
rounds of treatment. Her hospital room
is filled with stuffed animals – courtesy of shocked and grieving friends who
haven’t yet wrapped their heads around this fight. Of all of the stuffed animals, Kylie’s
favorite is a soft cuddly rabbit approximately the size of herself.
On Friday, while Keaton was saying farewell to his pediatric
team at Emory – he decided to stop by and visit Kylie. They’d never met, but kids with cancer
understand each other like no one else can.
Keaton is a class act. He wants
to devote his life to ministry… not really the preaching kind, - just the kind
where you meet people where they are and point their focus UP. I’d say his career has officially begun. I think it's poetic that it began Easter weekend. And THAT'S the story of our journey through Tar Heels, Blue Devils, and the Easter Bunny.
If you’d like to expand your prayer life as you continue to
pray for Keaton, we’d love for you to add Kylie to your list. You can follow her story at:
We’ll keep you posted as we head in a new direction for
Keaton’s treatment, but I’m liking the Tar Devils. Keep wearing those gray bracelets, and remember to PRAY FOR KEATON!
