When cancer strikes, it affects many lives.
Mark Buettner and his children, 12-year-old Isabella and 10-year-old Isaac, have been learning to cope with the loss of their wife and mother, LoriLynn, who passed away Nov. 26, 2014.
“It’s going good,” said Buettner, a registered nurse at Shawano Medical Center. where his wife was also a registered nurse. “It’s certainly an adjustment that we had to go through and are still going through.”
The Shawano-Menominee Relay for Life each year spotlights the battle against cancer and local efforts to to save lives by helping people stay well, by helping people get well, by finding cures and by fighting back against the disease. The 2015 event will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Shawano Community High School, 220 County Road B, Shawano.
Buettner said he still wakes up occasionally and thinks he has to get to the hospital to see LoriLynn.
“She fought a lot of years,” he said.
LoriLynn was diagnosed with melanoma at 17. She was treated, and there was no recurrence until 10 years ago when she was pregnant with Isaac. Treatment was delayed until it was safe to deliver him, and LoriLynn was then again cancer-free.
In March 2014, LoriLynn thought she had a thorn in her finger after Mark got her roses for Valentine’s Day. When it didn’t heal, she became concerned, knowing something wasn’t right.
Cancer returned — “That’s the beast of cancer,” Buettner said — and spread to her brain.
They went to New York for an experimental drug that seemed to work.
“We thought, ‘Wow, we’re blessed again,’” Buettner said.
But the cancer spread quickly, and nothing more could be done.
“You just keep hoping,” Buettner said. “It didn’t seem real. You’re in your own world. Then the reality hits you.”
The couple prepared themselves as best they could.
“She had so many worries and concerns,” Buettner said. “I knew what was going through my head. How are we going to manage?”
LoriLynn spent the last month at Shawano Medical Center in a room that was made as homey and comfortable as possible.
“She had great strength, and we supported each other,” he said. “She fought until the last day.”
His mother, Marcie, has been helping him mornings when he needs to go to work before the kids get on the bus.
“She’s been a huge help for that,” Buettner said.
Most of his relatives live nearby and have helped out, and LoriLynn’s family helps whenever possible.
“It’s been an adjustment,” he said. “We just have to forge forward.”
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