“Has a story about a complete stranger ever strongly affected you?” This is something a family friend wrote regarding Brent. With my next “official” trip not being until the end of October, I didn’t want to go too long without writing. While I haven’t been traveling, I have still very much been non-stop since I drove Brent to the ER with his roommate, Ryan, on Wednesday, July 5th. I’ve been booked solid week after week and my weekends are literally booked until Thanksgiving. I’m not complaining by any means. These weekends are booked with plans to celebrate friends’ marriages, work weddings, bachelorette parties, family weekends and so on. But I’m also not the only one traveling. A lot of friends, acquaintances and family have been and sharing the #LiveLikeBrent love too! 

That brings me to Chelsea. Chelsea is my sister-in-law’s cousin who loves to travel. I’ve met her a handful of times at some family gatherings. I was truly touched and humbled when she messaged me about Brent’s passing. She said that she didn’t know him well but felt she had a lot in common with Brent. She too lives the adventurous “bucket list checker” kind of life which drew her even more to the Live Like Brent movement. In only a matter of days she was going to be traveling to Iceland, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. I got a sticker to her as soon as I could for her to bring on her travels:

“Has a story about a complete stranger ever strongly affected you? Brent was fellow adventurer with a passion for life who recently passed away from cancer and his story hit home for me. His incredibly strong girlfriend, @aiscake has decided to finish out his bucket list and spread the word about the #LiveLikeBrent movement. Before heading to Europe I asked her if I could have a hand in spreading it internationally, and I'm honored that she said yes. Life is short. Live it, people ❤️ #carve4cancer“ View this post on her Instagram here.

This is exactly what Brent would’ve wanted. Creating an impact. Not the type of impact because it was so tragic. But the type of impact where people (not just me!) want to live like he did and keep his spirit alive by doing what he (and Chelsea!) loved to do. The photo above was captured in Reykjavik, Iceland. I originally had wanted to get a stack of stickers to Chelsea to post up on her travels but logistically couldn’t. She asked me what to do. I told her to bring it EVERYWHERE with her and when she finds a place to stick...she will just know. She carried the sticker for several weeks with her and let me know when she would finally leave it behind. But after Iceland Brent traveled with Chelsea to Amsterdam.

Then after being in the capital of the Netherlands she took him to Brussels!

Every time that Chelsea stopped to take a photo she would write me a message and send the photo. It was great. Then one day I received a message from her that read, “Well I found the perfect place to leave Brent’s sticker in Paris.” When I saw the photos she sent me the only thing that I could say was, “You’re right. This is perfect.”

In addition to Chelsea taking Brent across the pond...so did his boss from Suvoda, Andrea. If you knew Brent, you knew that he loved his job at Suvoda. For those of you who do not know, to put it simply, Suvoda is a clinical trial software company. Brent also enjoyed the fact that he was on the other side of things with the process as he had been involved in clinical trials as a patient in the past. He loved his career and the company he worked for but what he loved the most were his colleagues. He would always tell me how blessed he felt to be working with some of the most intelligent people he has ever met. Sometimes he would act surprised or astonished at the fact that he actually worked with them. He loved everything about Suvoda and never planned on leaving. He had no reason to. He enjoyed waking up in the morning and either taking the quick train ride out to the Conshohocken office or working from home and video chatting with his boss and her two pups for meetings. I always thought if you wake up in the morning and 90% of the time you didn’t mind going to work, you were set and very lucky. But 100% of the time? That was Brent. I was lucky enough to attend one of Suvoda’s holiday parties and was able to meet a handful of his peers. I met co-workers from the west coast, east coast and even from Bucharest! It was an eclectic and brilliant crew. Honestly, it’s no wonder why he would frequently boast about his job. Even when Brent had relapsed I witnessed the support and love that Suvoda gave to Brent and I know he is forever thankful for it.

When Brent started traveling to Memorial Sloan Kettering every week for his treatment I decided to think of a way to make the long train rides and even longer day in the clinic a bit more bearable. So I came up with the idea to have his friends make chemo boxes for him weekly! I made him the first one which explained what would be coming his way and it was filled with treats, sudokus, cross words and a tall stack of envelopes. Each envelope read, “Open me when...” and I had a card for every occasion or feeling he could possibly have when I wasn’t physically there to support him. He could open them on the train if he missed me, when he was sitting in the hospital bed months from then and needed a laugh or just ideas to help pass the time if he was bored. Most boxes he received had adult coloring books, snacks, some of his favorite magazines, books and a lot more.  But I got in touch with his colleagues at Suvoda and they put one together for him too (which he loved by the way). That’s when his wonderful human being of a boss, Andrea, and I exchanged numbers and I kept her up to date as the days, weeks and months passed. Even now she checks in on me every so often which I truly appreciate. 

Andrea recently made her way to the Suvoda offices located in Romania and brought a sticker along for the ride with her. Brent had always wanted to make his way over to the other offices and would tell me we’d go to Barcelona (because I’ve always been itching to go) then he would visit the crew there. But I’m glad that Andrea could take him with her to Romania this time around.

Andrea took a moment at the London Heathrow Airport which is photographed above.

Then at 35,000 feet up making her way from London enroute to Bucharest.

Then she snapped a photo in front of St. Anton Church (which dates from 1559) in Bucharest, Romania on her way into the office one morning. If there is ever a Suvoda office in my travels, you best bet I’ll be swinging by to just say hello and thank you. Seattle, Portland, Barcelona are on the horizon so I’m coming for ya!

Last are Caitlin and Adam who (I mentioned in the last post). While they didn’t take Brent abroad (yet!) they took him on part of their mini-moon. I could go on and on again about how wonderful of a weekend that was...but I will refrain. Adam and Caitlin got hitched this summer at Firelight Campgrounds and decided to not jet set right away and to enjoy their time in New York a little longer. They took Brent on a hike through the Robert H. Treman State Park in Ithaca because they knew how much he would have loved it. He would’ve loved everything about Ithaca and the entire weekend with our friends. But they ended up leaving the sticker at Firelight Campgrounds on the record player in one of the main tents. I probably looked at that record player half a dozen times during the wedding set-up. I even wanted to move it out of the tent at one point into storage but it stayed. It never occurred to me to put a sticker on it with the other ones already on there! As Caitlin said, “... left a sticker on the record player there since jamming out was one of your favorite things.” It was. Whether it was in the car, kitchen, shower or on the beach...Brent loved having his music playing.