This time next week we’ll be on our way to Scotland. What. The. Heck.

When we started planning this trip – it seemed so very far off. And now we’re only seven days away. SEVEN.

If I’m being completely honest, the trip always seemed far away but it never felt out of reach. For the last eight months I have felt so deeply that we are meant to walk The West Highland Way.

There’s been this tugging inside of us, pulling us toward that trail.

When we ran into issues with our flights a couple months ago – I allowed myself to sink into worry for a few minutes. But I just took a few deep breaths and a wave of complete peace came over me.

We’d be fine. We’d get there.

Through hell or high water, as mama would have said, we’d get our Californian arses to Scotland.

We’ve shared who we are and what The West Highland Way is – today we’ll share WHY.

Why the WHW? What does that have to do with your mom?

Ok, let’s go there.

When our mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2014 – the prognosis was stage 2. Not great, clearly. But not devastating either.

I’ll never forget her saying that the doctor’s called her disease, “the garden variety of cancers.” (As if cancer were carrots that you simply pluck from the ground in the Fall.) 

I’ll forever dislike that phrase… Regardless of the euphemisms – cancer is a scary thing. We were all very scared.

But she took it head on. She was such a badass.

She would go to the gym after she received chemo, her doctors couldn’t believe it. When she started to lose her hair, she had our dad shave it right off and rocked her wigs like it was nothing.

She didn’t let anyone see her sweat. And most people never knew she had cancer. By early 2015 she was declared NED. No Evidence of Disease.

She’d been given a new lease. She’d kicked cancer’s ass and life would be normal again.

I don’t quite recall the exact timeline of events now, but I do know it wasn’t long after this point that she went in for a final follow up scan. The last one and she’d be done with cancer.

They had noticed some spots – that were most likely cysts – and just wanted to double check.

The stage 4 diagnosis hit like a ton of bricks. It really kicked the wind out of all our sails.

She kept onward. Kept fighting and she responded really well to treatment for a while.

So where does The West Highland Way come in? Let’s backtrack a bit…

In 2013, while in Scotland visiting family, Robin (sister #3) and mom walked a 13 mile section of The West Highland Way. Mom jokingly declared herself, “Queen of the Highlands.” Robin described it as “one of the most grueling, rewarding and beautiful days of our lives.”

And so, while in the thick of her quiet battle with cancer, our mom decided that once she was cancer free she’d go back and walk the entire 96 miles.

It was going to be her reward when she got her life back. To celebrate her life and claim it out in the wild open air. But she never got the chance.

I’ve read that is very common with cancer to swiftly progress from a manageable state to a complete mess – but it seemed unbelievable how it so rapidly took over her body.

I’ll be brief to close because, I can’t go too deep just yet. There’s a lot inside still that is too difficult to put down in writing.

As we sat around her hospice bed last July, we sang to mama a song she’d sang to us many times, “The Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond.”

“You take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland before you. But me and my true love will never meet again, On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.”

Together, in that cold room, the four of us vowed that “We have to go to Scotland.”

And even though by this time she could no longer speak – we felt her speaking through us and with us. We have to go to Scotland.

And in seven days – we will.

Xx,

KA