By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
WITH hot-pink locks and leggings, the self-styled Team Muminator make a loud statement.
The team of five brought their verve to the Mother’s Day Classic fun-run in Melbourne this month, with a picture of their late mum and grandma and Ann Webber on their backs.
Daughter Julie De Luca, who captained the team, said she was nearly at the stage of not celebrating Mother’s Day this year – the first since Ann died of breast cancer in February.
“I don’t have a mum,” she told her daughters.
They replied: “But we do.”
Ms De Luca said her grief was still raw.
During the first two months after losing her mum, she barely had a dry-eyed day.
It helped her, her daughters Kristyn and Taryn, niece Shaye Webber and daughter-in-law Nikita Smith to take part in the eight-kilometre walk leg of the fun-run.
Through their own efforts, they raised $3500 towards research for a cure.
Ms Webber, and husband Harry, were well-known for running a supermarket home-delivery service in Dandenong for about 30 years.
They have four children – three sons and Julie, and were entrenched in groups such as Hallam CFA.
“She knew lots of people,” Ms De Luca said. “She was just a loving person. She never complained about her illness.”
Ms De Luca remembers her 74-year-old mum’s “courageous” ordeal with breast cancer. Ms Webber was first diagnosed 17 years ago; she spent 15 years in remission before the disease recently came back.
It felt like she was then taken away so quickly, Ms De Luca said.
Her mum, though plainly unwell, refused to go to an oncologist before last Christmas.
She knew in her heart something was wrong but didn’t want bad news to spoil that family Christmas.
Ms De Luca has been having regular mammograms for the past 11 years. Her grandmother was claimed by ovarian cancer, so she knows she and her daughters are genetically prone.
Mother’s Day will never be the same for the family. Ms De Luca expects the Mother’s Day Classic will be a family tradition.
