Pounding the Pavement

I'm a terrible fundraiser.  Even for the best cause in the world I have trouble asking people for money.  Perhaps it's the midwesterner in me. Perhaps it's just a skill I lack.  But despite my lack of ability in this area, in May I joined several friends, all adoptive parents of Ethiopian children, in a walk to raise money for Parkinson's disease.  One of the moms made matching purple tshirts that read "Pounding the Pavement for Parkinson's."  We were a visible group with about a dozen kids, mostly Ethiopian, ranging from around four to twelve years old, all in our purple shirts, walking in a short spin around a playground before we settled in to eat bagels, listen to music, and enjoy the gathering.  All of our kids clamored to the mic at the center of the event when our group won 2nd place for best sign at the event. 
So when my oldest asked why were doing all this, it became the day that I explained to my daughters that our friend, one of the mothers in this group, has Parkinson's disease. 
"Yeah, but why are we walking? Why are we all wearing these shirts?"
"Ummm, well... We're all here to give money to those people at those tables.  They're going to use the money to try to make our friend better."
"OK, but why are we walking?"
"We're walking because that's something we can do together.  See all these people with the stickers on their shirts with someone's name on them? Everyone here has someone they care about who has Parkinson's.  So it's nice to be around other people who have someone they want to get better too. We have our friend, and we also have our aunt J."
"Oh, OK."
I got home that day, told my husband about the shirts, the prize for our sign, what it meant for our group to be together, then reminded him I'd be away for a few hours the following Sunday to join a friend for a walk for Cystic Fibrosis.  My friend lost a cousin to the disease and is passionate about supporting research and treatment.  We laughed a little bit about the spring season of walks, and even joked that if we did a walk for every disease that one of our friends and family has, we'd be busy every weekend.
I know, sounds really crass, but the truth of that kind of hit me. We do not have to extend very far at all into our circle of immediate family and close friends to find multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, cancer, lupus, diabetes, mental illnesses, and heart disease.

I don't really know how to process all of this. I actively ward off disease by doing the things I've been taught my whole life; not smoking, eating fairly healthy food, getting regular checkups, you know, all the required stuff.  But these kinds of diseases defy all of that prevention and sneak up on perfectly health law-abiding citizens. The fact that I can't keep them from happening to me to or to people I love messes wtih my sense of how things ought to be.

So what do I do with that? How do I explain to my kids that people we love have terrible diseases that are going to get worse instead of better, through no fault of their own?  How can I reassure them nothing will happen to me, and that I'll be healthy and able to take care of them forever? How do I not lose sleep fretting over who could be next, and with what?

I think the answer is that there is not much to be done. 
Eat your vegetables and get your exercise.
Educate yourself and go to the doctor every now and then. 
Keep your friends company, adn when someone gets sick, bring over a hotdish every now and then.
Raise funds or at least throw in what you can spare. 
And then you get together with your friends, put on your matching purple t-shirts, and you pound the pavement.