Sarah Jean Reiss ~ 4-14-1988 ~ 9-29-2010 ~ Our beautiful and courageous daughter and sister ~ Thank you for all your love and for just being you. Our faith lets us trust you’re happy, healthy, and surrounded by so much love and glory next to Jesus and all of our loved ones there with you. You’re on our minds and in our hearts always. Love you and miss you beyond words Sarah, and thank goodness there’s no time in heaven for you…because here it’s gonna seem like forever till we get to see you again.

Live ~ Laugh ~ Love

Dad & Mom

Megan, Chris, Monroe and Maren
Molly, Josh, Beau, Will and Kate
and Fitzy

"The greater the love ~ The greater the loss"

May 8, 2008 - The day we heard Sarah's name and the word cancer in the same sentence...it was the beginning of our whole world being changed forever.

Thank you to each and every person involved with this phenomenal event and to every person who makes a donation. The support Dance Marathon provides to kids and their families is beyond words. Sarah was always the oldest patient on the unit and even older than some of the Dance Marathon kids themselves. She didn’t have the interaction with them the way the little kids did but no matter your age seeing the DM kids walk into the unit put a smile on everyone’s face…a bright spot in some very dark days.

Dance Marathon is a weekend filled with tears, smiles, and lots of hugs. Seeing the families we met while on Sarah’s cancer journey…. thankfully, some of them doing very well…some of them, like us, trying to live life with a piece of your heart missing. Everyone just doing the best they can. There is some comfort in seeing families; comfort in seeing the amazing caregivers who took care of Sarah and anyone who knows Sarah. They assure us she will not be forgotten.

Dance Marathon does an amazing job of remembering the ones who are no longer here to dance. The Forever in our Hearts Quilt with every child’s name on it hanging in the room where they dance with a candle burning next to it the whole time and in the opening ceremony reading each child’s name on that quilt. The special luncheon for the Dancing in our Hearts Families. Families who definitely relate to one another – as one Dad put it “we’re all in a club none of us want to be in.” Sadly, this luncheon/club adds families each year. Also, the Dancing in our Hearts room – quiet room to reflect and remember these kids and where you can display pictures of your child and share their story. Finally, the video with a picture of each child with their name is shown during the closing ceremony. We’re so grateful they make such an effort to remember all of our kids. They just cannot be forgotten.

Saw this quote at one Dance Marathon weekend. “There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.“ ~ Dwight Eisenhower

How True.

Forever Grateful ~

Sarah's Mom