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234“you were always there for me”“All my friends were her kids,” Sue’s son, Willie, recalls. “She madesure that every one of my friends had a home when they came to thehouse. She took them in and she cared for them. One friend—hismom worked two or three jobs. She had three or four kids. She hadcousins living with them, aunts and uncles. He never had a dad. Hewas kind of—whatever is left over. He spent a lot of time with us. Mymom really took care of him almost as one of her own.“My other friend—his mom pretty much sent him packing rightafter high school. The day after high school she said, ‘You’re out ofhere. Good luck. I raised you for this long. Now, you’re on your own.’My mom said, ‘You can come live with us.’ He’s always been like mybrother. We’ve known each other since fourth grade. Him and I havealways been really close, and we still are today.”As the rental car hummed along, Sue pulled each note from thebox and read it aloud. “Each letter made our hearts cry—in a happyway— over the beautiful way in which each boy so sincerely expressedhis love for Sue,” says Zell.“You were always there for me, if I was down or needed advice,”the boys wrote. “I wouldn’t be who I am today, if not for you.”Four weeks later, when Washington rains replaced the Hawaiiansun, doctors diagnosed Sue with stage four kidney cancer, a bafflingand deceptive disease known for its lack of warning and resistance tochemotherapy. Renal cell carcinoma forms in the lining of small tubeswithin the kidney. By the time doctors discovered it in Sue, the cancerhad invaded other parts of the body. “Your mother and your dadshould be living a long life,” Billy says, thinking of his own parents.“I told Crystal all the time, ‘You’ve got to outlive me.’ And we tookcare of each other. I mean, Jesus, she never smoked or anything. Wetook good care of each other all the time, and all of a sudden, thishappened. She’d been going to the doctor, but they didn’t tell herthat she had cancer.”From what doctors have pieced together about the disease, Suedidn’t fit the mold. While its root cause is unknown, smokers, the