Neighborhood holds parade for mom battling cancer
INSIDE EDITION - An Ohio woman got through chemo with a little help from her friends, and on the day of her last treatment, they threw her a big parade.
Amy Kleiner endured the debilitating therapy without a single complaint, says her best friend, Tera Kiser.
“Everyone should have a friend like Amy,” Kiser told InsideEdition.com. “She’s so selfless. She’s just so easy to love.”
Kleiner, 45, underwent a mastectomy on Valentine’s Day. More bad news followed, her friend said.
The mother of a 13-year-old daughter would have to undergo chemotherapy, followed by radiation treatments.
“It made us all really sad,” Kiser said of herself and other friends of Amy. “We knew then what kind of year she was going to have.”
Then Kiser had a vision of sorts.
“I know it sounds crazy,” she said. “But God just gave me this picture of all of us jumping up and down on the day she had her last treatment.”
And so began the plan for Amy’s parade.
Fast-forward six months, and there’s some 50 people marching to her home in a Cincinnati suburb. And it only rained a little.
Kiser was supposed to be taking Kleiner to her final appointment. When she walked outside, she was bombarded with cheers, applause, balloons and tears.
“I looked like a little bit of a loon,” Kiser said. “I was jumping up and down and screaming, ‘You did it!’’’
Others were happily hopping as well, Kiser said. And Kleiner was completely surprised.
“She had the biggest smile,” Kiser said. “She couldn't believe that so many people came.”
Invitations to Amy’s parade were sent on Facebook. “People really took it seriously,” Kiser said. Many brought their children to pay tribute to Amy.
“I told my kids, ‘This is what you do when you love your friends. You have to be a cheerleader and pick them up and show them that they’re not alone” Kiser said.