Trudging Through With Tears, Laughter

When French got home, she and her mom cried and went to church together. "I really cherish that," she said. "That was one of the last Masses we had."

All this year, French and her stepmother, Barbara French, prepared for the walk at their home in Woodbridge and raised the $1,800 each walker needed to participate.

As she's grown older, family and friends have said Erin French has taken after her mom, exuberant and friendly. And that laugh: "If you hear it once, you will never forget it!" her stepmother said.

It spread through the walk: When they were about halfway through the marathon Saturday, something made Erin French crack up. "I laughed at her laugh," said her best friend, Denise Jones. "The more she laughs, I laugh. The more I laugh, she laughs." Soon everyone around had started giggling, too. "It's contagious."

But they had miles to go, and hills. It got colder and started to rain. French wanted to stop, again and again.

That night, they slept in tents, limping to the entrance and falling in. Yesterday morning, Barbara French taped her wobbly knees. Erin French did her ankles and then her shins.

But the sun was out, the sky was blue and they followed the bobbing, sometimes hobbling, line of pink through the city.

At one corner, a bunch of sorority sisters called out, "Thanks, ladies!" Karen Paide and Sandi Goetsch, wearing pink scrubs, held a sign from other Johns Hopkins Hospital patients thanking the thousand of walkers. "When you touch their hands, you can feel the spirit," Goetsch said, slapping palms as people walked by. "You can feel the love."

Erin French beamed and said, "The people are awesome! That's what's kept us going." They saw a big group of girls and boys wearing bras, pink-and-black lace and green polka dot, over their T-shirts. A woman cheered: "You are the best! You did it for our breasts!"

And then there was the Kennedy Center -- the finish line. They'd made it.

The guy in the cow suit grabbed them in a group hug, and they started to cry. Jones called her mom. Erin and Barbara French signed up for the walk next year. Erin danced through the crowd, laughing.

Staff writer Susan Levine contributed to this report.