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Obituary for Sally Ross Weber
Sally Weber passed away at her home in Littleton, Colorado, on July 4, 2016, from complications of metastatic melanoma. She was the honored wife of Mike and the loving mother of Bethany. She will be missed by her sister Beth and brothers Mike, Scott and Steve.
Sally was raised in the Catholic tradition by her mother Marion and father Merlin Ross. She graduated from Marian College in 1972 with a B.S. in chemistry. Her early work experience convinced her that chemistry was not the right career so she joined the Air Force. Through Officer Candidate School she became a Second Lieutenant and trained in munitions. While serving at Vandenberg AFB she met Captain Mike Weber who was there on temporary duty from Missouri. After a long distance romance they married at Vandenberg on October 5, 1974. After a brief stay at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota they went to Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio where Bethany was born. They moved to Hanscom AFB in Massachusetts where Mike worked in system acquisition and Sally went to the University of Lowell for a M.S. in software engineering. She was successful in her work with Digital Equipment and stayed with them when she moved to Denver in 1984. Sally advanced to project management and eventually ended up working for Media One. What happened next is told in her own words. The Next Chapter – Written June 2008
My ‘true’ next chapter happened six years ago when I left corporate America and became a music teacher, fulfilling what I now realize to be a life-long goal. I followed this dream chapter for five years until a new chapter thrust itself upon me. That new chapter was cancer – unbidden, unexpected, emotionally shattering. A rare form of melanoma in an area never touched by the sun; extensive surgery but no other treatment for what appeared to be Stage II cancer.
I wanted to live more fully after that; do some of those things that were still goals in my life but all I seemed to be able to do was wait – wait to see if the other shoe would drop. It did – nine months later – and I realized that I had robbed myself of a next chapter. Instead of living, I waited to see if living was an option. Now my life was on hold again.
I’m undergoing surgery and extensive drug therapy, knowing that Stage III melanoma is not that easy to defeat. But I’m approaching life differently this time. If all goes well, my therapy will be done in October 2008 and then I’m going to write my next chapter and it won’t be one of waiting but of doing; not a time to see if living is an option, but a time to live.
These are not things I can make happen but I can make this next chapter a happy one, spending whatever time I have with the people I love, trusting that if I don’t see my dreams for them realized, that those dreams will be fulfilled in their own time. At one point in my life, career was everything to me. Now I realize that the only things that really matter in the end are family and work that you can be passionate about. These are the things that endure after you are gone; these are your legacy. There will be many next chapters for the people I love whether I’m here or not. I hope I can be here for that chapter and maybe a few more after that.
The Continuing Story - September 2015
Seven years have passed since I wrote about the "next chapter". My cancer went into remission in the fall of 2008 and although other health problems have occurred with regularity over the passing years, I was free of the curse of melanoma for 7 years. Until September of 2015. I turned 65 this month - an age I never expected to reach. Now I'm hoping that I'll see my 66th birthday.
Part of me wishes that I had used the past 7 years more wisely and part of me knows that life doesn't really work like that. Life is made up of a succession of days - some special but most just the normal type of day where you do normal kinds of things. But maybe I didn't do too badly. My daughter and I took a trip to Prague in 2011 - some place I always wanted to see. There were the usual trip misfortunes, but all I remember now is the special time I spent with Bethany.
In 2012, all three of us went on a vacation together. We took the train to San Francisco and spent several days exploring that beautiful city. I also became an active volunteer. For six years, I have been playing piano at the hospital where I was treated once a week (with time off for illnesses and surgery). It is so rewarding to have people come up and say that I made a bad situation a little better or brought a smile to their face even when times were difficult. I've played in assisted-living homes as well and have continued on a limited basis giving piano lessons.
Maybe I haven't done so badly.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made in Sally's memory to: MELANOMA RESEARCH FOUNDATION 1411 K Street, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC, 20005
