Holycross receives Relay Caregiver Award for dedication to longtime friend
Bellefontaine High School intervention specialist Stacey Holycross holds a photo of her longtime friend and co-worker, Teresa Welch, who passed away in January 2017, while also standing next to a Door of Encouragement created in Ms. Welch’s honor that is displayed at the school. Mrs. Holycross has been named the 2018 Honorary Caregiver for Logan County Relay For Life, slated for 6 p.m. to midnight Friday, June 15. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES)
Over several decades, shared times together included playing softball and volleyball in their younger years, and enjoying each other’s families and children as they grew into adulthood. More recently, the two women also shared a love of their profession and a passion for working with teens at BHS, where they collaborated to find ideas to make school engaging and exciting for youths.
Longtime friends Teresa Welch, left, and Stacey Holycross are pictured together in a team photo from a Huntsville softball team when they were 14 years old. (PHOTO | HOLYCROSS FAMILY)
That close bond would serve to hold the fast friends together when their families received devastating news in late 2016. Welch, an avid runner who thought she was just having persistent issues with bronchitis, was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to her brain and spine.
She spent much of December 2016 at The James Comprehensive Cancer Center in Columbus for various tests and to explore treatment options. However, because the cancer already was so advanced and would spread to the rest of her body, the 44-year-old returned home on hospice care during the next month, with her family and her dedicated friend at her side.
This year for the 2018 Logan County Relay For Life — slated for 6 p.m. to midnight Friday, June 15, at Southview Park — Holycross is being recognized as an Honorary Caregiver for her selfless actions of taking care of her dear friend during this difficult time fighting the aggressive cancer, which took Welch’s life Jan. 23, 2017.
“The cancer took Teresa away from us in only a few short months, and while it was very hard to see her go from being healthy, even running a 5K that Thanksgiving, to being very sick, we’re thankful that she didn’t have to suffer for very long.
“She was always happy and smiley and up for a good time,” Holycross recalled. “It didn’t matter if we were sitting through a long work meeting, or if she was in the hospital enduring IVs, blood draws and other painful tests and procedures.
She found a way to make others smile, and teased her doctors and nurses.
“She was always trying to find the fun; she was a little bit ornery, too.”
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