Blog

Bordas & Bordas, along with WTRF7 News, is offering one lucky person a chance to win (2) tickets to see the Pittsburgh Pirates take on the St. Louis Cardinals in playoff action on Sunday, October 6. To enter, simply "like" the Bordas & Bordas Facebook page AND the WTRF 7 Facebook page. Then share the contest with your friends. Finally, text the keyword WINTIX to 22828 on your cellular phone. (Normal text messaging rates apply. Those without texting abilities can email the keyword to communications@bordaslaw.com). You can also follow @bordaslaw and @WTRF7News on Twitter for an additional chance to win. Terms and Conditions for the contest can be found here. Good luck and Let's Go Bucs!

All of us are survivors in some way, but we think of surviving cancer as being more difficult. Experts tell you that if you go ten years without a reoccurrence of cancer then you are really a true survivor. Well, I went ten years and then the rascal showed up again. What I have gained from this experience is that every day without treatment should be added to your tally of survivor days, something like accumulating points in life. These points should make you so grateful that you can quit worrying about reaching some special milestone like six months, or ten years. That doesn't really mean anything. What's important is that you live each day. You will hear people say, "He lost his life to cancer," and this is true of someone who focused so much on their illness that they quit living the days that they have left in this world. None of us know when our time will be up in this world. Do something good, be someone special, help others, and love. I saw this little message on the Internet and thought it was a wonderful way to live. Aspire to inspire, before you expire. I remember when I was first diagnosed. I thought the doctor must be wrong. How could this be? I was only 45 years old, not a smoker, no alcohol use, and I had a daughter. They say that childbirth reduces your risk of breast cancer. My first visit to the surgeon was horrible. I decided to get another opinion and went to Magee Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh. Trusting in my doctor and the care I received in Pittsburgh made a big difference in my own mental prognosis. I was starting to believe that I would be all right. I can remember that my first prayer was please let me see my daughter graduate from West Virginia Wesleyan. The time passed quickly, and then I sent another  prayer request. God, I'd love to see my daughter married. In 2001, my breast cancer reoccurred. I thought at first that I was really in big trouble now. Why would it have come back? I soon felt that if I beat it once, I could surely do it again. I now had two granddaughters, and it started all over again. God, I'm not ready to leave, I want to see the girls, graduate from college, and I want to share in their adult lives. In 2007, we were blessed with a grandson, and I want to be here when he is a husband and father. The cancer experience makes you realize what is important in life. It makes you a much stronger person.

This October, I would like to remind every woman to please schedule yourself a mammogram. If you're over the age of forty it may be time to get a baseline done or earlier if you have any family history of breast cancer. Consult with your family doctor about when he/she feels you should start getting your mammograms. Men, you are not excluded from this cancer either. This year I lost my sister-in-law Liz to breast cancer. Liz had been a breast cancer survivor for about fifteen years. Here is a little of her story. In 2012, the doctors told her the cancer was back for a third time and it had moved into her liver, bones and brain. Once again she stepped up to the plate ready to fight, but this time it was way too much for her, so she went with quality of life as she didn't want to be out of it or sick from all the chemo treatments. She wanted to spend as much time with her family and friends as she could and be as pain free as she could. I was so very blessed to be able to help take care of her until she finally had to go into a hospice facility in Pittsburgh PA. My ability to help Liz was only made possible because I work for a family-first law firm. Understanding and support are not strong enough words for what Bordas & Bordas did for me and my family during our difficult time taking care of Liz. Liz passed away this May of 2013. We also lost her husband (my best buddy) Augie to bladder cancer in February of 2013. Two loved ones in three months is just very hard for one family to handle. But we did it and we are closer and stronger than ever. One thing Liz never wanted to die from was breast cancer. She asked me if she did pass away from breast cancer to please tell everyone how important getting a mammogram each and every year is. Liz fought back again against breast cancer about five years after she was diagnosed the first time and I remember getting the call from her telling me she wasn't sure if she was going to do radiation or chemo. She was really feeling sad, alone and sorry for herself, (which she had  every right to be feeling) but me being me, I told her to stop it, that she needed to stand up and fight, cancer was not going to win this round, and if she wanted to feel sorry for herself I would throw her a big pity party after she had gone through treatment and she was strong enough to tell her story of how I told her to stand up and fight like a girl, and how I wouldn't let her sit down and feel sorry for  herself. Liz told me I was the only one in the world she  knew who would tell her to stop it and to do something about it and that I was one of the reasons she took treatment that time. Liz also told me that she felt I was the strong one in this battle and I had faith in God, something that she was so desperately trying to hang on to but was slowly losing, and that I made her understand that God has a plan for everyone.  Liz told me I helped pull her back from a very dark time in her life. Trust me, she was never alone or lost her faith in God, she only thought she was. God was her light in that dark place, she just didn't know it at the time. Liz took every precaution to keep herself checked and cancer free, used preventative medications and took exercise classes for breast cancer saviors. You name it, Liz did, took it, or Liz researched it. Liz always said you have to be your  own best advocate to fight any and every type of cancer. But sometimes the cancer will take you no matter what you do to stop it. No truer words had been spoken. It's still hard for me to think she's not there when I have something I need to have more than two opinions on, now it's just down to myself and my oldest sister Diane, as our third opinion is gone. Liz and I were very close for being sister-in-laws, she and I would never say that  we were in-laws, only sisters. It was funny to see people's faces when she would tell them that I married her brother. You could see them thinking, "What?" We both would laugh and walk away. That's what kind of relationship I had with her. I was so blessed to have a friend and a sister in Liz. Liz made me a better person and she helped me understand things that I never knew in my lifetime would need to know or understand. God only takes the best ones back first and I truly believe that she was taken away from us way too early, but what she left behind for all of us was the meaning of what true love is: God and family. Please show your support this month for Breast Cancer Awareness by wearing pink. It's the best tribute you can show someone who is a survivor or for those who lost the battle with breast cancer. Please also consider supporting the 8 th Annual Driving Fore A Cure Golf Classic. This year's event will be held at Oglebay Park on Friday, October 11, 2013. Liz, I'm writing a very small part of your story for others to read and understand that they are not alone when it comes to breast cancer. You are and will always be my Hero! You gave me the greatest gift anyone could ever give to another person: unconditional friendship, love, support and you never asked for anything in return. You and my beautiful sister, Diane, are the two that made me who I am to this day. Thank you. I love you and miss you, Liz!

We take law – and fighting for justice -- very seriously at Bordas & Bordas. n We also like fun facts. n And here’s one for you: Arabella Mansfield was the first female lawyer in the United States. The National Association of Women Lawyers even named its most prestigious award after her: the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award. n Yet did you know she did not practice law? n It’s true. Born in 1846 as Belle Aurelia Babb in Des Moines County, Iowa, she was educated in Mount Pleasant (where Clara Foltz, the first woman lawyer to be accepted to the bar on the West Coast also grew up). n Afterward, she attended Iowa Wesleyan College. (As many men left to fight in the American Civil War, universities were admitting more women.) Belle began using the name “Arabella” there and graduated in three years as valedictorian. n There was a bit of a winding road then, as Arabella taught at Des Moines Conference Seminary (now Simpson College) before returning to Mount Pleasant to marry John Melvin Mansfield, according to Wikipedia. n John encouraged Arabella to follow her ambition and study law. She did so as an apprentice at her brother’s law office. n Iowa law at the time was restricted to “males over 21,” but Arabella took it in 1869 and passed with flying colors. She challenged the state law excluding her from practicing and won. Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law. She was sworn in at the Union Block building in Mount Pleasant. n Challenge met, though, Arabella decided to concentrate on teaching and work as an activist. She worked with Susan B. Anthony and the suffrage movement, chairing the Iowa Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1870. n Unfortunately, she died in 1911 before getting to see the suffrage movement’s ultimate achievement: passage of the Nineteenth Amendment which assures “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” n

The most common causes of motor vehicle collisions are speeding or failing to drive a safe speed for road conditions (including weather), failing to maintain a safe distance between your car and the car in front of you, failing to maintain control of your car, and distracted driving.  Any of the above causes alone can cause a traffic collision when a motor vehicle in front of you is forced to make a sudden stop or when another vehicle pulls out in front of you.  But frequently a combination of two or more of the causes are at issue and lead to the collision being inevitable.nnFor example, it is easy for people to justify reading a text message while driving because they fail to realize the significance of what can occur in only a few seconds of distraction.  Understanding the calculation that 1 mile per hour equals 1.467 feet per second helps put the actual danger in perspective.  If you are driving at 50 miles per hour, you are traveling nearly 75 feet per second (73.35 feet exactly).  Accordingly, in the 2 seconds it might take one to read a relatively short text, you are traveling nearly 150 feet or 50 yards at such speed.  During such time, many unexpected things can occur, including a car in front of you slowing down or coming to a sudden stop.  Similarly, another car can start pulling out in front of you.  If you are already speeding or failing to keep a safe distance from the car in front of you, any such unexpected events can readily result in a collision.nnWhile we cannot control what other drivers are doing, we can help avoid collisions by properly controlling our own driving, including following the posted speed limit, lowering our speed if weather conditions require it, keeping a safe distance between any cars in front of us, and keeping ourselves focused on the road in front of us rather than being distracted.