ORLANDO, FLA – Cancer.
The very word, no matter in what context used by itself, portends negativity. But put it together with the sport of hockey and you come up with another meaning: hope.
Professional hockey leagues have for many years now supported the American Cancer Society in raising awareness and funds for research through “Hockey Fights Cancer” games and weekends. Although the methods may be different from city to city and team to team, the goal is the same – bringing the hockey family together to help find a cure.
In Orlando, the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears have their Hockey Fights Cancer coming up this weekend, February 23rd and 24th. The team will be wearing specialty jerseys that will be auctioned off to raise funds for research as well as hosting a “Relay For Life” lap event at the Amway Center prior to Sunday afternoon’s game against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
The Solar Bears family – both the organization and its fans – have felt the pain and anguish that cancer deals out on a daily basis. Some of the stories are of loss while others are ones of survival. Every one of them shares the common theme of courage in the battle whether it be beating the disease or saying goodbye to a loved one. Together they create a tapestry of why Hockey Fights Cancer has become so important.
These are just a small few of those stories…
Les Miller (right) and his care giver Cindy, who helped him recover from lung cancer surgery (Photo courtesy of Les Miller)
Les Miller, a native of the Washington, DC area who now lives in Orange City, Florida, is a hockey fan but more importantly he is a cancer survivor, lung cancer to be specific. How he found out was actually triggered by being at a Solar Bears game in 2015.
“Four years ago now I had lung cancer removed and it was only because I came to a hockey game and I got pneumonia afterwards that I found out that I had lung cancer,” Miller said. “At first they didn’t know what it was. They just said there was a mass in my lung but when I had the surgery they took it out and they realized it was stage 2 non-small cell lung cancer so they removed half the lung with it at the same time.”
Miller had to go through chemotherapy and did well until the last week of the treatment cycle when it finally got to him. These days he still gets reminders of his surgery every time he attends a Solar Bears game.
“My seats are down in the third row from the glass,” he explained. “Walking the steps, that still takes my breath away now. It’s been three and a half years later and it still takes my breath away.”
Les Miller poses for a picture with his daughters Heather (left) and Heidi (front) and his daughter-in-law Mia (Photo courtesy of Les Miller)
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Tammy Hebert and Alex Enos are a mother-son team from over on the east coast of Florida in Titusville. Their experience with cancer and family members is extensive and not exactly happy.
“I’ve lost a lot of people in my life to cancer, most importantly my late husband and my mother and my grandmother,” Hebert said.
Losing a family member as an adult is difficult; losing them while in you are a teenager is even worse. That is what happened to Enos.
“It was really difficult for me because we lost Nana when I was in tenth grade and then my step-dad was diagnosed in tenth grade,” he said. “You could see the grades drop with everything. He made it to 2013 so we saw him go from this very strong, Navy military guy and we just saw what cancer does and just wear him away. He never stopped fighting but it was really hard to see him go through it.”
Both Hebert and Enos said they are grateful for what the Solar Bears do to support cancer research.
“That they’re [Solar Bears] willing to support something like this is amazing to me,” Hebert said. “There’s so much that needs to go into cancer research.”
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Fighting cancer can be a perspective changer. The spectre of death, even in the process of beating it, can alter one’s outlook on life.
Jamia Erban is the in-arena host for Solar Bears games and minor league baseball’s Florida Fire Frogs as well as being a member of the “Blue Crew” spirit squad for the NBA’s Orlando Magic and the G-League team in Lakeland, Florida. Both her mother and uncle have fought the fight and either have won or are winning the battle.
“My mom is a breast cancer survivor,15 plus years now so we’re really happy about that. When she was going through it, it was a bit tough because I was younger then. Regardless of tough it may have been for her kids, she always remained strong, always fought through. [The] many times she had to go through chemotherapy treatments, she definitely always put a strong face on and always was the rock,” she said. “I think the toughest time for us was when we never saw her cry until she started losing her hair. I think that was also the first time that she cried so when we saw our rock cry for the very first time, I think that’s when the reality of cancer just hit our family.”
That reality created a shift in the entire family’s lives. It made them all realize that every moment is precious and that even for a family that lived life to the fullest, there was still much more living to do.
“I think that at that moment our entire family, not just us kids but for her as well, we went and just started to live life to the fullest. Not that we weren’t before – we were definitely having a great time. I have a great family, I love my family, we’re [all] family first – but I think at that moment especially when she got through that we realized that hey we have a second chance here. My mom was never they type of person – she never drank, she never did anything bad, she always followed the rules, always church on Sundays, always following the rules literally to the T. I’ve never met anyone more willing to follow the rules than my mom. Now after that, even once in awhile, she’ll have a moscato or two so she’s definitely taking life to the next level, definitely a different perspective, and being such a great grandmother, obviously wife still and mother and sister and family member all around to her entire family. She’s my best friend.”
With her mom in remission and her uncle having recently completed chemotherapy transfusions for colon cancer, Erban is appreciative for every day. She is also proud to be a member of the Solar Bears family because they care.
“That’s why I love this team so much. They’re wonderful on the ice, the team is great and always welcoming but the fact that the entire organization cares not just what happens on the ice but also cares what happens off the ice means a lot to me not only as a person but as an employee specifically because my family has had experience with cancer,” she said. “It definitely brings a warmth to me and I can’t wait until this weekend and any time I see our organization taking steps forward for the community as well, it definitely makes me even more proud to be a part of this team.”
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The last story may be the toughest to tell because it is one that is personal to this writer as well as many members of the fan base and the team itself.
Ann O’Brien (front row center in Hockey Fights Cancer jersey) with some of her “hockey family” during an off-season season ticket member event (Photo courtesy of Latricia Meredith Ewen)
Ann Carroll O’Brien was an elementary school teacher in Seminole County, Florida, just north of Orlando. Teaching was one of the three greatest passions in her life with the others being hockey and the most important, her daughter Maddie. She was a mentor to countless future teachers and a guide to too many students to count.
Most of us knew Ann through the Solar Bears. From day one of the franchise’s “Out of Hibernation” season in 2012-13, Ann was a fixture at season ticket member events, at games at the Amway Center, at practices at the RDV Sports Den Iceplex during school vacations – if it was Solar Bears related, she was there. And once you met her, you were a friend for life.
“We became friends at the end of the first season, the “Out of Hibernation” tour,” Latricia Ewen, one of Ann’s closest friends, said. “We were both commenting on the Solar Bears Facebook page about how we missed hockey. Then we started instant messaging each other, then it became texting and then we actually first met at the season ticket pickup event at the beginning of the second season and became fast friends ever since.”
Ann O’Brien (left) and Latricia Ewen spending time together at the Solar Bears season ticket member bowling event less than a month before Ann lost her battle with cancer (Photo courtesy of Latricia Meredith Ewen)
The two families became intertwined away from hockey, spending time at dinner, attending each other’s life events (children’s birthday parties, graduations, etc.). Ann and Latricia also became Solar Bears “road warriors”, making trips with Maddie and other fans to Estero, South Carolina, Duluth, GA and other places to cheer on the team while making new friends wherever they went.
But just as with any family, with the good comes the bad. Latricia was with Ann the first time she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I was actually went to the doctor’s appointment with her so I take the whole battle very personally,” Ewen said. “It affected me a lot because I was fighting right along there with her and I kind of feel like I almost let her down because I told her everything was going to be alright.”
Ann fought round one and won but the cancer came back. Right around New Years, she was diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. It is a rare complication from specific types of cancer – breast, lung and melanoma cancers among them – in which the cancer spreads to the cerebrospinal fluid, traveling into the liquid part of the brain and into the spinal cord and wreaking havoc with the central nervous system. How rare is it? It happens in roughly only 5 percent of cases of cancers and even with early detection, the life expectancy is anywhere from one to seven months.
Almost immediately, Ann’s friends – led by Latricia and Renee Ference who had created The Igloo fan page for the Solar Bears on Facebook with Ann – rushed to figure out ways to help out physically and financially. Ann’s longtime friend Michelle Bixler came into town and became Ann’s caregiver.
On Tuesday, February 5th, Ann Carroll O’Brien drew her final breath on Earth and passed away at the age of 48.
Ann’s friends banded together and quickly formed “Ann’s Army” – just one of many such pockets of friends by the same name – to continue working on ways to help take care of Maddie, who we watched grow up before our eyes. In addition to a Go Fund Me page that was started before Ann’s passing, fundraising is continuing with pins and t-shirts being sold to raise money to help defray medical costs so that Maddie is not saddled with debt.
Solar Bears mascot Shades shows off the mission statement poster for Ann’s Army at a recent home game (Photo courtesy of Joe Majka)
“It’s been overwhelming. I didn’t create the name but I created the Facebook group to based on all the individual peoples and ideas that were coming to me,” Ewen said. “I was like let’s just put it all in one spot so that we could stay organized.”
The Solar Bears have felt Ann’s loss as well. During the team’s first home game following her passing, a video tribute was played on the Jumbotron at the Amway Center and a team jersey with a pink ribbon was placed on her seat in section 102 – a physical tribute that will remain throughout the rest of the season. They also set us a special code for on-line ticket purchases for the game on February 24th with part of the sale going to Ann’s Army.
“The team has been amazing. The individuals who work in the front office have been amazing and the fans themselves have been amazing,” Ewen said. “Those who were close to her or knew her from afar, everybody seems to have been affected by the loss of Ann especially at such a young age. Everybody seems willing to open up their wallets or give up some time [to man tables] or give up a jersey. You wouldn’t believe how many people are offering to donate things for any sort of auction or anything we have.”
Hebert and Enos are just two of those who are spending time manning tables during home games.
“She [Ann] was always there for everybody. She welcomed everybody. She made everybody feel like family,” Hebert said. “To see someone as wonderful as that go through what she did is just heart-wrenching.”
Enos echoed the feeling of family that Ann gave everyone she met.
“We call them our hockey family and Ann was almost like a bonus mom,” he said. “She had such a big heart.”
Latricia Ewen (far left), Renee Ference, Ann O’Brien and her daughter Maddie with former Solar Bears defenseman Eric Baier (Photo courtesy of Latricia Meredith Ewen)
I too became part of Ann’s hockey family. We would text message back and forth during games. Many times we would talk on the phone after games. If team news came up during the work day, I would send her a text message and she would answer with questions later on. We shared inside jokes about what traits would make a hockey player suitable for Maddie to date (she never did but there was a protocol).
Along the way, we all became friends and it was all because of Ann, the lynchpin, the center of our hockey universe.
Ann’s battle brought back emotions and memories that I had not had since my own mother Barbara had passed away back in 2002. I remember my mother being so worried about losing her hair from the treatments – just like Ann. I repeated the same message for Ann that I told my mom: hair or no hair, you are still you and you are important to me.
To this moment, many of us have been experiencing the same thing. Something happens and the first thing we want to do is call or text Ann (Latricia and Renee fondly tell the story of a years long text chat with Ann that literally got into the hundreds of thousands of messages) but we stop ourselves. We know we can’t because Ann is no longer there to answer and it makes us miss her all the more. It hurts and it will for quite some time.
Lately, the Amway Center has become more than just a home away from home for us hockey junkies. We go there to be together, to remember Ann, to continue following the Solar Bears as she would want us to do. It will never be the same but we at least have each other – just like a family.
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So the next time your local professional team, whatever level they may play at, hosts a Hockey Fights Cancer game or event, go and take part. Make a donation, give of your time, whatever. And while you are doing that, maybe in honor of a family member or a friend, know that you will be part of a very unique family – one that cares, one that is welcoming to all and one that is very dedicated to fighting cancer as one.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
Follow the author on Twitter @phnsingleaedit or @prohockeynews
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