“What Would You Say To Cancer”

The first chalkboard started as two hand painted sheets of plywood back to back by our friend and artist Alex Teed (now Barker, but we have known her since she was 6, so she will always be Alex Teed no matter how much we love her husband).

As Gone Country grew, the boards became so crowded it was impossible to read them by the end of the night. We decided to triple the size.

I asked our team if they could tell me how it feels to write on the board. Some of the comments went like this.

“Gone Country, as much as it’s a party, people feel comfortable being vulnerable and putting words around friends or family they have lost.”

“The chalkboard allows me to voice something I need, but also stay anonymous. The meaning is private, but I love that I get to put it out there.”

“I get to see what I’ve lost named and written up on that board, helping me physically see my brother and part of why we do this.”

“It’s a safe space, and there is comfort in numbers.”

“A huge rush of feelings. Sadness, happiness, loneliness. Then everyone else around me is doing the same thing, feeling the support and togetherness. Walking away from the board feels like band-aids on the broken parts of my soul.”

Danielle Harrison has been with us since the first year. Over 24 years later, she is still here. Jamie and I wrote on the chalkboard at GC10 for the very first time, and so did she we found out later. It was definitely emotional, but it felt damn good.

We have lost our mom, our friends, and many family members. I wrote about my mother-in-law, my stepmom, and my dad who are all pushing past their cancers.

Jamie wrote something that absolutely broke me that day.

Mom.

“We’re ok.”