Woman takes long walk in grandmother's memory
By Jenn Director Knudsen
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Michelle Philan is inviting you virtually to walk a mile in her shoes. Actually, make that 26.2 miles.
Philan, 26, is training for the June 3 Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego to honor the memory of her grandmother, Jean Philan, who died at age 85 last December.
Michelle, the youngest of Jean's four grandchildren, is working with Team In Training toward her physically challenging goal and is raising money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in the process.
A dog lover, Spanish speaker and customer service representative for Office Products Northwest, Michelle set out to raise $3,500 for the Society.
Seventy-five percent of all donations to the voluntary health organization go directly into research to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma and to improve the quality of patients' and their families' lives, according to the Society's Web site.
The Society uses the remaining money to fund flights, hotel stays and marathon expenses for Michelle and others participants.
You can track Michelle's progress toward her mileage and fund-raising goals—and make a tax-deductible pledge on her behalf, too—at her Web site: www.active.com/donate/tntor/mphilan.
An active woman who loved walking herself, as well as gardening, cooking, volunteering and family, Jean was diagnosed last fall with a rare form of leukemia and lymphoma (both blood cancers) that took her life just months later.
"Michelle and Jean had a close relationship," said Jeannette Philan, Michelle's mother and Jean's daughter-in-law, and a preschool teacher for 19 years at Congregation Neveh Shalom's Foundation School.
Michelle recalled that when she was barely school-aged, the grandchildren spent New Years' Eves at her grandmother and grandfather's home so the kids' folks could have a night on the town. (Grandfather Max Philan died in 1989.)
She also remembers playing badminton in her grandparents' backyard, one that was always perfectly tended.
"And there was a beautiful garden," Michelle remembered. "She was very into gardening, flowers and plants."
The Beaverton High School alumna left Portland for Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. After graduating in 2002 with degrees in Hispanic studies and studio art, Michelle moved to and spent nearly four years working in San Diego.
She returned to Portland in early 2006, only to have her grandmother fall ill a few seasons later. Last fall, Jean had to undergo some procedures from which she convalesced at the Robison Jewish Health Center, where she had volunteered and served as sisterhood treasurer for 15 years, according to the RJHC Sisterhood.
Michelle said her grandmother clung to a sense of independence during her brief stay and wanted nothing more than a telephone for private conversations. So Michelle, during one of her many visits to Robison, presented Jean with a pink cell phone.
"I was the only one who called her on it, and she was so excited when her little pink phone rang," Michelle laughed.
Only three weeks after her grandmother died, Michelle unexpectedly received a postcard from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
After brief consideration, she committed to getting in shape while raising money to fight the diseases that killed her grandmother. In June she'll spend about half a day walking a marathon and visiting friends in San Diego.
Michelle is training to walk a 15-minute mile. That pace, plus a few potty and snack breaks, should get Michelle over the finish line just under the event's seven-hour time limit.
Michelle trains six days a week. She works out on her own; with Sue Ritchey, the Oregon chapter of the Society's Team in Training Head Walk Coach; and with a Team in Training group of up to 40 walkers and runners.
"Michelle is doing a phenomenal job. She is one of the hardest working members of the team," Ritchey said in an email.
"Never in a million years had I figured I'd do something like this," Michelle said.
She loves the high she gets both from the physical exertion and the receipt of donors' checks; she is shocked by others' "amazing" generosity, Michelle said.
"I'm doing this to honor (my grandmother's) memory and to be part of something bigger than me, my job and my dog," Michelle said.
"If I were doing this when she was alive, she probably would be doing this with me."