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Photo by Jeff Thompson.
Always with Terry in mind 1
Oak Mountain High School senior basketball leader Allie Allers lost her mother to cancer at age 7. Now, she uses her experiences to motivate others in Relay for Life.
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Photo courtesy of Allie Allers.
Always with Terry in mind 2
After Terry Allers began chemotherapy, she lost her hair. But when Terry opened a birthday gift from her daughter, Allie, she used the crinkle-cut paper as a wig, making a memory Allie carries with her.
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Photo courtesy of Allie Allers.
Always with Terry in mind 3
One of Allie Allers’ favorite photos of her mother, Terry Allers, taken before Terry was diagnosed with cancer. Terry died when Allie was 7, and Allie participates in Relay for Life to honor the memory of her mother.
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Always with Terry in mind 5
Allie Allers
Oak Mountain High School Relay For Life
May 2 • 6 p.m. • Heardmont Park
relayforlife.org/oakmountainal
Allie Allers has heard it before.
“You look just like your mother out there,” her dad, George, tells her occasionally after watching the Oak Mountain High School senior play basketball.
Allie’s mother, Terry Allers, was known as Terry Voegler when she walked on with the Fairfield University Stags in 1984. In 1988, as a senior, she led the school to its first-ever NCAA Basketball Tournament appearance. George thinks Terry and Allie — Alexandra, formally — have similar play styles, but it was really Allie’s hair that started the comparison.
“When Allie came out with that ponytail bobbing exactly the same way her mom’s did, it was a real goosebumps moment. It still is,” George said. “Terry’s here.”
This season, Allie Allers led the Oak Mountain Lady Eagles to the Sweet 16 of the state tournament. Before then, she’d taken thousands of free throws and lay-ups in practice and pulled down hundreds of rebounds in hundreds of games. But Allie was 7 when her mother died, and her mother never got to make the comparison for herself.
Terry Allers never saw her daughter play.
Mom’s resting
Before her cancer diagnosis, Terry was an all-American mom, Allie said. She spent her free time working with the Our Lady of the Valley Catholic School PTO, coaching soccer teams and cooking meals for Allie and her three brothers. Terry was loud on the sidelines but gentle with her children.
But when the disease struck, things changed. Not immensely, though. Terry lost her hair to chemotherapy, but she didn’t lose her sense of humor.
On a birthday shortly after she started the treatment, she opened a gift from her daughter. Inside were a picture frame and a poem Allie had written for her mom. All Terry saw was a box of pink paper shavings.
“Oh my gosh, you got me new hair,” she said, swiftly sticking the mess on her head. “I love pink!”
Through the treatment, Terry didn’t do much cooking or cleaning. The family relied heavily on itself and others, as aunts and uncles brought food and Allie remembered nannies and babysitters caring for her and her brothers. The siblings prepared themselves, sleeping on cots in their mother’s hospital room and creating closure before it was needed. Then, Terry left them.
“I remember the day she died,” Allie said. “I remember everything about that day.”
George told Allie and her brothers, and shortly after, Allie’s aunt came to pick her up. On the way out, Allie walked by her mother’s room. For months, a small sign had hung on the doorknob that read, “Do not disturb, mom’s resting.”
Allie ripped it off and pushed the door open.
Getting past
In the years that followed, Allie grew up quickly. Her father remarried for a short time, and Allie, at 10 years old, learned to cook meals and care for the family from her stepmother. Her father said she became the woman of the house. Allie, though, simply became an adult.
Maturity had washed over her with immediacy, and with the support of her brothers she learned the importance of perspective. Her father helped, too.
“He set high expectations and standards,” she said of George. “He expects me to make As and Bs. He doesn’t hope things will get done, he expects them. And I think I’m the person I am today because of my dad, because he had those expectations for me.”
That person, Allie said of herself, doesn’t get stuck in trivialities. She has a resolve and determination she’s developed in the decade since her mother died. She can see the bigger picture of things rather than living with one little thing at a time.
“I feel like the worst thing life has to throw at me has been thrown,” she said. “I feel like if I can get past that, there are so many other insignificant things I can get past.”
That includes a heartbreaking 57-31 loss to Jeff Davis in February during the state tournament this year. To get past it, she uses one of the many tricks she’s either developed or uncovered since her mom died — humor.
“We just played awful,” she said. “You think of your last game and giving it your all, and ugh. But whoever in charge of air conditioning in there didn’t do a very good job. We were falling apart. I’m pretty sure all our girls had asthma attacks.”
What you have now
In February, Allie signed a four-year academic scholarship with Birmingham-Southern College, where she’ll also play basketball beginning this fall. But before that returns one of her favorite seasons at Oak Mountain High School.
Allie got into the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life her sophomore year with her mom in the back of her mind. She joined Terry’s team, started originally by her brother, but connected with the event more quickly than even she expected. By junior year, she had formed her own team — Team Up for Terry — and she manages its members like she motivates her fellow Lady Eagles.
It’s much the way her father managed her. The bar is set high, and there’s no room for excuses.
“I made T-shirts and I made everyone buy it,” she said. “When people sign up, I make sure they know, ‘Hey, I’m into it. If you join, I’m making it mandatory that you raise your $100.’”
The success of her team doesn’t correlate to pleasing someone else, though. Allie loves Relay for Life because she shares a connection with the hundreds who attend. They’ve all lost someone to cancer. And like she needed her father and brothers to build herself into the confident, mature adult she’s become, they need someone, too.
“There’s a Survivor Walk, and even a Memorial Honor Walk for the whole community,” she said excitedly. “It’s this coming together to walk around the track. People hold hands and cry, and everyone hugs everyone. It brings everyone together and shows how short life really is.
“It shows how you need to cling to the people you have now.”
Oak Mountain High School Relay For Life
May 2 • 6 p.m. • Heardmont Park
2014 OMHS Relay for Life Chair Cecilia Crego said a group of 50 students has been planning the event since the start of the school year.
“There have been no adults helping except those with the American Cancer Society,” Cecilia said. “It’s all put on by high school students. It’s been hectic and chaotic and we’ve been working so hard, but it’s going to be a great event.”
Cecilia said event organizers are focusing this year on opening up the event to the community. She said in recent years it’s relied heavily on high school students and their families, but she wanted every local resident to know that they were invited and that their donations are important.
Allie Allers agreed.
“Donations don’t just go to finding a cure,” Allie said. “It goes to lot of families, too — families fighting cancer who need help. It could help with gas money for a family. It could help buy medicine or get a house so they could be closer to the hospital.
“I used to think, ‘If I give $5, how does that really help in the long run?’” Allie added. “But now I can think of a lot of ways the American Cancer Society uses that money to help.”
Cecilia said the event raised $33,000 in 2013, and organizers have set a $40,000 goal for this year’s event. For more or to donate to a team, visit relayforlife.org/oakmountainal.
