Family members of Lisa Spillman Mesa were in Liberal on Tuesday for a ceremony conducted by Pancake Day officials in memory of Mesa’s three wins in the city’s annual pancake-flipping race against contestants in Olney, England.
Mesa, who grew up in Emporia, died May 16, 2009, of acute myelogenous leukemia at the age of 32.
She had worked for Emporia Physical Therapy and moved to work for the company at its Liberal office. It was there that Mesa, always athletic, was drawn into participating in the Pancake Day race.
Pancake Day, always held on Shrove Tuesday — the day before the beginning of Lent — had existed for centuries in England. It was a time when citizens in Old England recognized the tolling of the church bell as a signal they should scurry to church to be “shriven” of their sins. Traditionally, the women made pancakes as a last treat before giving up butter, sugar and other treats during the 40 days of Lent.
Legend has it that in 1445, an Olney housewife had begun making pancakes late; they were not quite finished when the church ball rang, so she set off for the church carrying her griddle and the pancakes with her, to ensure they did not burn.
Her race to the church prompted the tradition of a 415-yard race from the “town pump” to the church. Liberal residents 500 years later heard of the event and challenged Olney to an international competition between the two cities. The challenge was accepted in 1950 by the Rev. Ronald Collins, Vicar of Olney, according to a history of the races.
Mesa won the International Pancake Day races for Liberal in 1999, 2000 and 2001, setting a record that was not broken until 2009.
Her husband, Manny, and sons, Aiden and Logan, of Broken Arrow, Okla., were in Liberal for this year’s race on Tuesday, along with some of her Emporia relatives, including her mother, Judy Spillman Welch; grandmother Beulah Spillman; aunt Jackie Lake; and stepfather, David Welch.
“We honored them with a white rose in her memory,” said Jo Ann Combs, executive secretary of the International Pancake Day organization in Liberal.
The Mesas later had moved from Liberal to Broken Arrow, Okla., where they were living when Lisa Mesa was diagnosed with cancer shortly after giving birth to Logan in August 2008. A stem-cell transplant became the only viable treatment.
A search for a compatible donor narrowed down possibilities to four people on an international registry, and only one of them was able to come to the United States to donate the cells needed.
The surgery at Baylor University Hospital on Feb. 12, 2009, had showed encouraging signs of success and she was released sooner than expected to stay in an apartment near the hospital, where she could go daily for checkups and medication monitorings.
Her body began rejecting the donated stem cells in April and, after being hospitalized, she returned to Broken Arrow when it became apparent she would not be able to recover from the complications she experienced from host vs. graft disease.
Mesa’s transplant prompted her former boss, Greg Bachman, to organize a bone-marrow donor registry drive at his physical-therapy business in her honor. The drive added 92 people to the National Marrow Donor Program, which Bachman hoped would help others in need of donated cells.
Mesa also was a granddaughter of Opal Dicus of Emporia and was the daughter of the late Glen Spillman.
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