AROUND TOWN: Conway's legacy should live on
There aren’t words to describe the empty feelings that we’ve been left with following the death of Mollie Maloney Conway last week.
Hope is eternal. Life, as we find out every day, is not, but often it is far too short.
And there aren’t words or explanations that are anywhere near sufficient, especially in this case.
Mollie, the mother of seven, was honored just more than a year ago as The Scranton Times-Tribune Mother of the Year. And it was just seven weeks ago at the Coaches vs. Cancer BasketBall where she was recognized for the battle she had waged against stage IV colon cancer that had spread to her liver and her brain.
For more than 2½ years, she was a shining example of why Andrew Kettel, Matt Shaffer and so many others — too many to name — have put all their efforts to doing as much as they can to raise as much as they can to give us all a little more hope.
In a night of glamour, glitz and A-list basketball coaches, there was much more. There was purpose.
That night, there was a tangible reason for waging the fight, for doing whatever it takes to make tomorrow better for someone else’s
As I read Mollie’s story that night, and again this week, I realize it wasn’t just a night filled with hope.
In the face of a death sentence, she battled as tenaciously as any of the great athletes we’ve ever had step onto the basketball courts of northeastern Pennsylvania.
Her story told us how lucky she felt, how cancer would not define her, how she loved life and its many blessings.
And throughout, the message was repeated: “I am a survivor.”
This week, cancer took Mollie from her hundreds of family members and friends, but it needn’t be a loss. It’s another chance.
It’s an opportunity to do more next time, and the time after, and the time after that.
Mollie lost her fight, but her courage should guide us to do something more,
something better, and to
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