The world lost an amazing woman in Diane Melick on Saturday April 28th, 2018. She fought long and hard to beat all the odds with pancreatic cancer, and seriously kicked it’s butt for somewhere in the ballpark of 16 months longer than she was given to live. But even Diane, one of the strongest humans we’ve ever known, couldn’t overcome this terrible disease.
She was laid to rest this past Friday, and this is the speech I gave on behalf of the gym. I am sharing for the countless individuals who were unable to be present…
On May 20th, 2012 I received an email, nothing too out of the norm, as this is how people contact me all of the time with regards to getting started with our little gym, Beyond Strength Performance NOVA:
Hi Chris,
My daughter’s physical therapist, Seth (forgot his last name), recommended I contact you for personal training sessions. I am 52 years old, in overall good shape, but have been so busy with working full-time and graduate school I have not been in a regular routine of exercising lately. I have gained about 10 pounds the last year and a half and would like to get back in shape. I can still jog 3 miles (with a walking rest sometimes) doing 10-minute miles, and I lift weights at least once a week (curl 15 lbs, squat 95 lbs I think if bar weighs 45 lbs, etc.). I am in a rut with my weights and would like to explore more complex exercises that engage more muscles at a time and maybe some balance moves. (Interesting article in the Washington Post today on 45 year old Olympic swimmer Dara Torres finally prompted me to write to you. Did you see it?)
If you have time to take on a new client, please let me know, along with your rates.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Needless to say, I took on a new client—to steal her word—that day. But little did I know how much of an impact this wonderful human being would go on to have on me and so many others at BSP NOVA, and truly become a part of the family.
When we first sat down, of course we talked about the Dara Torres article, which was on growing old gracefully, but Diane also expressed a goal of getting her first chin up. You see, another article had also been making its rounds about how women couldn’t do pull-ups, and that didn’t sit well with Diane. She was focused on proving that idea wrong, even at the age of 52, since, according to her, she had never done a pull-up before.
And she proved ‘em wrong alright, getting to the point where she wasn’t just able to do pull-ups—but she did them for reps, she did them with additional weight, she did them on gymnastics rings with all kinds of other moves thrown in—she heard “you can’t do this,” and in her own awesome Diane way said, “watch me.”
As it turns out, Diane was able to do just about anything she put her mind to—except getting to the gym on time—there was that. I don’t know if it was just for the gym and our social events, but in our experience, she was always late to the party. In she would come, pitter-pattering her way across the gym floor, usually fumbling with her gym bag, still smiling ear to ear and offering up apologies and an explanation of how she “just lost track of time” doing the million-plus things she was involved in.
So how fitting that in mid-late 2016, when she was told she more than likely had only 3 months left to live due to being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she once again said “watch me” in her own little Diane way. No way was she going to make that appointment on time!
She had one heck of a 2017, as many of you know—not just surviving, but traveling all over, spending tons of time with family and friends, just soaking it all in.
To say that she was strong would be the biggest understatement anyone could ever make. I’ve gotten some calls and emails in my time with excuses for why someone couldn’t make it to the gym on a given day. Then there was Diane. She would be in the gym the day after chemo sometimes, and I kid you not—on good days, still doing her pull-ups… still the same, happy, amazing Diane we’ve always known.
Even when she did talk to us about the difficulties she was enduring, it was always with a smile, laughs, and reassurance that she was hanging in there.
And boy could she hang in there. We have these little challenges every month at our gym—we call them Alpha Challenges. We post an event on the blackboard, and then everyone competes all month long to see who that month’s “Alpha” would be. Back in January 2016 we did a hang challenge. The idea was simple—grab onto a pull-up bar and hang for as long as you could. Diane won. And I don’t mean that she won for some age category, for the women, only for the members, no, Diane beat everyone—coaches, college athletes, professional fighters, man, woman, child—ev-ery-one. She hung in there with a time of 2:58.03, crushing second place, held by coach Kevin Ives, a former member of the US National Bobsled team, by more than :20. But even crazier, we knew that no one would beat her time as she hung up there approaching the 3:00 mark, so we told her it was okay to just drop down—honestly, to save us from any further embarrassment, because she was fine to keep on going.
She could hang in there better than anyone. And did she ever, right?
I think Diane would be so happy to know that she taught us way more important lessons than we ever taught her, and I just want to leave you with a couple.
- Don’t listen to the naysayers—you can do it, and Diane would want you to. Go get whatever your “pull-up” is, tip your cap to the sky and say “watch me” as you do.
- Hang in there—life is good. Even in her final weeks, when she came by the gym with Ed and Shannon to deliver the terrible news, she was sooooooo incredibly happy. We were balling our eyes out, hugging her, completely devastated. And yet, there was Diane, happy as ever, assuring us she was fine, letting us know she had never been in a better place in her life than right then, and in her own little Diane way, telling us to hang in there. She taught us to find the joy in everything, as difficult as that may be in times like this, there’s always plenty to be thankful for.
So, hang in there and be happy for Diane, because even though there’s a good chance she got distracted on her way to Heaven and arrived late, she’s smiling down on all of us, just so happy to see us all here celebrating her amazing life…
*Music written and recorded by Todd Bumgardner
We love you, Diane.
