After death, life still something to celebrate

Lisa Huntington didn't live to see her 44th birthday, but she was able celebrate with a song, a smile and a laugh-enducing “cha, cha, cha.”

Lisa died Sunday, two days before her birthday, after a four-year battle with cancer. Her husband, John, knowing she might not make it, surprised her with a party April 14 at their Marion home.

“It was really the last time she was with us, that she knew what was going on,” John says. “She sang happy birthday with us and at the end said, ‘Cha, cha, cha.' She just grinned from ear to ear.”

For John and Lisa, owners of Huntington's restaurant in Marion, life became a roller coaster.

In 2006, Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent treatment and a double mastectomy. A year later, she seemed to be in remission.

In 2008, John had brain surgery for a form of epilepsy.

“The surgery they did for me was good,” he says. “I haven't had any more episodes. I've got a clean bill of health.”

That year, Lisa's cancer returned. This time it was more aggressive.

I wrote about them then, having known John for more than 20 years. Their close friends, Doug and Diann Chadima, were spearheading a fundraising golf tournament to help them and their children, Mitchell, 13, and Haley, 11. John and Doug had been friends since 1984, when they tended bar at the Tycoon. Lisa and Diann had been friends since seventh grade.

Doug friended me on Facebook. Through CarePages.com, I followed Lisa. They were friends.

Lisa continued treatment, often at the renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. A stem cell transplant gave hope, but it didn't take.

Unexpectedly, Doug died in January. He was 49.

Now, too young, they leave behind spouses and friends John and Diann.

“She's a tough cookie,” John says. “She's going to get through this.”

John will, too.

“She really wanted to make it to her birthday,” he says about his wife. “She talked about it all the time. It was a mark, a goal, that she could make it to that.”

Next would have been their 16th wedding anniversary May 14. Then ...

“She's the toughest person I've ever known,” John says, choking back tears. “She went through more than anybody.”

Lisa endured 17 types of chemotherapy. She was prepared to try an experimental protein-based therapy.

“She was going to go the extra mile and then some,” he says. “It wasn't for her. It was for everybody else. For her kids.”

In her last post on CarePages, the day before Easter, she wrote, “I now am having to sleep in a hospital bed on the main level of our house, which I can't stand! Keeps me away from my great hubby.”

In the late 1980s, John met Lisa when he hired her to wait tables at Zach's Bar & Restaurant in Cedar Rapids. As they became friends, she told him of her fantasy to some day swim with dolphins.

Last month, Lisa realized her dream at Discovery Cove in Orlando, Fla.

The weather had been cold leading up to that day, John says. Then the sun came out, temperatures rose into the 70s, John and Mitchell and Haley climbed into the water with the dolphins and Lisa.

“She didn't feel the pain,” John says. “She didn't get tired. It was neat. It was meant to be.

“It was just something. You should have seen her face,” he says. “That smile. She could just light up a room.”

Cha-cha-cha.