About Becky – Becky was in her final year of Pharmacy School through Creighton University’s Distance Pharmacy program.  She had just started her sixth of eight Rotations when she died.  Becky’s classmates went to the Dean of the Pharmacy School to ask the school to award her degree at commencement on May 14, 2011.  The Dean took this request to the President of Creighton and he gave his approval to award a posthumous Doctor of Pharmacy degree to Becky.  Jacob, Amity, Dara and Steve and I went to Becky’s Hooding and Graduation.  The following poem was written in mid-February as Beck’s classmates began posting to Facebook about graduation plans.

Yesterday
I saw her friends
Planning and plotting
Interviewing and winning positions
Applying for graduation
And cheering each other on
She would’ve been in the thick of this
Competing for positions
Head cheerleader for her friends
Excited and daunted and running
To a graduation so close
But still just out of reach

Today
Graduation’s importance fades
She’s won the prize and knows
Cheerleading still, she watches
Anticipating the joy of her friends
Urging them on to something much bigger 

Tomorrow
We will attend graduation
And cry tears mixed of sorrow
For what we thought would be
And joy at what is
So proud of her friends and of Becky

“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-3