Hey all - I hesitate to write within this amazing community of readers and supporters. This is Tallu's space, where she poured her love and fears and hopes and anger, while she was undergoing treatment for glioblastoma, and facing the reality of a deadly tumor.

I've tried to evoke Tallu so many times in my own grief over the last two years. She's showed herself to me in many ways, and she has helped me, along with so many others, to walk a path of pain and, still, never-ending love. To evoke Tallu is to laugh wildly, to struggle bravely, to care indiscriminately. I can't evoke everyone's Tallu, just mine. But I can imagine what everyone's Tallu is like, with all the love and memories she left (and still leaves).

One way I want to ask everyone here to evoke Tallu, if you feel you can, is by thinking with me how we can bring the specifics of her illness into conversation. It has taken me lots of time to accept that what happened to Tallu, her diagnosis of glioblastoma, was in many ways out of our control. And also to understand that what happened to her was very specific - it was a kind of advanced cancer that still evades treatment for people diagnosed with it. And, as my sister has bravely suggested after meeting with some researchers in Seattle, wouldn't Tallu, if she could, be so doggedly interested in getting to the bottom of it and changing outcomes for those who are facing the diagnosis or will face it? Tallu was humble and also clear during her dying that she didn't want to be put on a pedestal. But when I think about her power, then and now, it makes me wonder how many of us it would take to come together and make progress on glioblastoma in a way that would match that power, and use that power, and, ultimately, honor that power.

In that spirit, I want to invite you to come together, with her family, to get on the same page about glioblastoma. It's not just a good cause - it's important to me that you invite others in, whether familiar with this tumor or not, and that you take seriously the possibility that even just learning about it will eventually shift outcomes for many. Please see the information LINKED HERE, and consider joining us on June 1, in-person in Nashville or remotely, for an event to start a conversation about how we can all learn more about the specifics, reflect on Tallu's brave journey, and push for smart and effective research about glioblastoma.