Happy Mother's Day

The Pender County Relay for Life took place on Topsail High School's track last Friday night. With Mother's Day just around the corner from the event, one could not help but notice how so many mothers were involved in the cause.

For those unfamiliar with how a Relay for Life works; several teams take to the track for 18 hours of festivities, based around the fact that every team keeps at least one member walking on the track at all times, raising money and honoring those affected by cancer.

The Topsail Advertiser has an annual tradition of honoring moms by featuring a local mother's story on the holiday. This year, we thought we would combine that sentiment with the spirit of the Relay for Life.

Several teams at the relay could have fit the criteria to be featured, but we had to pick one special story from the Relay that signifies how important mothers are in our lives, so we decided to highlight a team known as "All For Julie."

Team "All For Julie," which consisted of more than 20 of Julie Caison's closest friends and family members, had planned to honor the 34-year-old Pender County mother as a team as she fought her own battle with cancer. Unfortunately, Julie didn't get to make it for her celebration. While Julie's husband Bubba looked on, and the rest of the team was busy walking the track in Julie's honor, team members Andrea Costin, Julie's mother-in-law Gail Costin, and Julie's young daughter Alyssa were able to take the time to pose for a picture with a luminaria they purchased in Julie's honor. Andrea then took a moment away from the relay to speak with us about Julie.

"Julie was diagnosed with lung cancer in the beginning of February and she battled it for about three months and she just passed away on the 27 (of April.) She was really wanting to be out here," said Costin. "We have about 23 people on the team. We just put it together a couple of months ago in honor of Julie. We wanted to do something special for her."

And we want to do something for her, too. This Mother's Day we honor Julie and mothers like her who were here long enough to be mothers, but still were not here as long as we would have liked. We also honor those like Andrea, Granny Caison and little Alyssa. Some are already mothers, some will be mothers some day in the future, but we honor them because they have shown the spirit of Mother's Day by honoring a mother when she was here, and even after she had to leave.