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a 2,160 mile hike...in loving memory
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The Appalachian Trail •
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Trail Tales • Trail Mail 
Cheryl Rose Counts Walden
was a longtime Cincinnatian and the eldest of five
siblings. At the very young age of thirty-four, Cheryl was diagnosed with
breast cancer. As a loving wife, mother, daughter, and sister, Cheryl
imparted a natural and loving warmth and enthusiastic brilliance while
attending to geriatric cancer patients as a devoted nurse in a long term
care facility. Despite immense adversity, Cheryl endured the disease
spanning an eight year period while living a simple, yet full life, graced with peaceful and loving energy. Cheryl's faith was strong and she
was rarely unsettled or anxious about her affliction. A more aggressive
form of breast cancer struck again at the age of forty-two resulting in a
radical mastectomy and eventually, a stem cell transplant. As too
many families have beared, the cancer spread senselessly over an eighteen
month period and Cheryl's physical being on earth ceased. Her years of
devoted and sacred work in caring for others has been honored permanently
at her place of purpose, the long term care facility in which she shared a
reciprocal love through the lives she touched. Cheryl held hope in her
heart and lived every day with purpose and the promise of a brighter dawn.