After Sands of Time, Mom wrestled a few more matches in SFT, while Will was off in Japan. Jane, the twins, and myself would often travel during this month or so. This is when I got my first, real taste of the road. Night after night we'd follow the caravan of SFT talent, sleeping in motels, going to the big shows in the huge arenas, and the little shows in po-dunk cities. But after about a month, Mom finally decided she had enough of it, and knew it was time to walk away. Especially with the idea that Jane and I were missing school. So it came to be that we returned to Ozone Park, New York, and that was the last time I saw substantial time on the road before my own career started.

A year would pass before Will moved back to the United States with us. His plan had been that he'd work continuously in Japan, making as much money as possible by grabbing as many bookings as he could. He would then return home, retire, and we'd live off royalties from DVD sales, t-shirt sales, an the occasional legends appearance. It wasn't going to be glamorous life, but it was an honest life, and we'd live comfortably. But unfortunately, that was when our lives as a complete family began to end.

I remember when Mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was about a week and a half before Will had come home. I remember her being constantly sick for the month prior, but she hesitated to go to the doctor. She knew if something was wrong, it would ruin all of the plans she and Will had. So she tried to suffer quietly, and not let it get in the way. When Will came home, she had sent us to Mike Flair's apartment to stay the night, one of Will's trainees from SFT.

I don't know what was said that night, I just remember being picked up the next day by Will. He was white as a ghost, and despite having flown in from Japan the night before, he hadn't slept. We were brought back to Ozone Park, and sat down in the kitchen, and everything was explained to Jane and I. I remember thinking Mom was going to be ok. I was about 6 then, and she really didn't look that bad. But I was too young to know how cancer works. The next two years, I'd come to find out.

It was also on this night, that I was told why my last name was Pettis. I had asked before, but mom dodged the question each time, being able to distract me from an answer. I'll never forget the feeling of finding out that Andrew, the man I had been forced to visit at times when I was really young, was my true father. Again, when you're only six, you don't realize the impact on your life these things have. But in my later years, my early teens, it began to sink in. I'd think about those times in Missouri living with him, and the fact that he never seemed to care about the fact I was there.

Less then a month after Will returned, Mom's treatment began. I remember after her first surgery she wrestled against Connor MacDaddy in her last SFT match. It wasn't pretty, and no one was ever sure why she did it. I think she wanted to convince herself that she was still ok. Then afterwards, the chemotherapy started. I remember her changes well. I watched as her hair fell out, her skin changed from a soft pink, to an almost gray white, and her attitude. Some of it was the chemical shock on her body, I'm sure. Some was the fact that in her mind, she wasn't a woman anymore. I remember going to the hospital once with Will, and she actually turned us away from visiting. Not because she was mad at us, or didn't love us. She thought she was hideous, and she really didn't want us to see her. Every time I went, I wasn't sure who I'd be seeing. My mother was warm, and loving, and the person I saw was cold, and distant. But I don't blame her...

The scene shows a hospital room, in the Ozone Park Hospital. Becky can be seen in her bed, hooked up to numerous monitors and IVs. Next to her is her husband, Will Schorg. He has fallen asleep, curled up in a chair. It's been about three hours since Becky's latest in a series of operations to remove cancerous tissue from her body. The outside light is bright orange with the setting sun illuminating the evening sky. As Will shifts in his chair, he slowly opens his eyes. He looks over at the heart monitor on his wife, as it lightly beeps in pattern. He stands up and stretches in the room and walks over to the window. From behind him, he hears the door to the room open, and someone walk in.

"Mr. Schorg," begins the nurse, "do you intend to spend the evening?"

Will doesn't even look at her. "I intend to stay till my wife is ready to leave. I believe I have a right too."

"Yes you do, Mr. Schorg. I was just making sure. But I need to wake up your wife, for her pain medication."

Will turns around, and looks at Becky, still out from the surgery. He looks up at the woman as she opens the pill bottles.

"Why are you waking her up? She's not feeling any pain. She's having some peace for the first time in awhile."

"I understand that Mr. Schorg. But I'm required to give your wife these medications on a strict schedule."

The nurse takes Becky's wrist and starts to shake it gently.

"Ma'am, please, I ask that you just let my wife be. I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

The nurse looks at Will, and shakes her head. "Mr. Schorg, please, I would appreciate it if you'd just let me do my job."

Becky's head begins to move as the fog is obviously lifting, and her eyes slowly begin to open. Will looks into them, an obvious emptiness can be seen as Becky hasn't still come too completely. She brings her hand up to her eyes and rubs them, and she begins to sit up.

"Mrs. Schorg, please, just lay down. I'm just going to give you some pain medication, and then you can go back to resting." says the nurse.

Even through the haze, Becky squeaks something out. Neither Will, nor the nurse hear her, and Will leans down and asks her to repeat it. She says it again, and Will chuckles.

"What did she say Mr. Schorg?" asks the nurse.

"She asked why you're waking her up, to take pain medication, when she isn't in pain sleeping." Will replies to the nurse, who is obviously put off by this statement.

"Well, I can't help it. These aren't my decisions you know. They're your doctor's and the hospitals. I just administer the medication." The nurse says defensively.

Will just shrugs it off as the nurse puts the pull in Becky's mouth. She brings a cup of water up to her lips and Becky drinks it, taking the medication. The nurse then goes to her chart and makes a check mark before walking out of the hospital room. Becky rolls her head and looks at Will, who is still standing at the edge of the bed.

"Where....are...the kids?" Becky is able to ask, as Will puts his finger to her lips.

"Don't worry about them." he answers. "They're fine, just you rest. They want to put you on chemo as soon as possible. So you need to just worry about yourself."

Becky begins to sit up again, and Will tries to get her to lay down.

"Please Beck, just go back to sleep." Will tells her.

"Not till I see the kids...at least...let me talk to Sara for a little bit."

Will looks down, and nods. He walks out of the room for a minute, and down the hall to a waiting lobby, where the kids are all watching t.v. under supervision from Nathan Gust. Will walks over to Sara, and kneels down.

"Sary, mommy is awake, and she wants to talk to you." he begins to tell her, "Do you know which room she's in?"

"Yes..." Sara says softly, "Aw-went you coming too?" Sara says in her eight year old voice.

"No, she wants to talk to you in private. But don't let her talk to much ok? She needs to sleep." Will tells her. Sara nods, and begins to walk down the hospital hallway to her mother's room. She slowly reaches for the door handle, and opens it. She walks in slowly, and sees Becky lying in the bed, almost asleep from the combination of the pain medication, and anesthesia. Sara looks at her mother, and slowly walks towards the edge of the bed. She climbs up onto the chair that Will was sleeping in, and takes hold of the rail. She stands in silence, before Becky's eyes slowly begin to open. She turns towards Sara, who hasn't said a thing, and smiles.

"Hey babe...why didn't you say anything? Mommy was about to fall asleep." Becky says softly.

"I thought you alweedy we-ah. I di-unt wanna wake you up." Sara says back timidly.

Becky chuckles, "Babe, we have to work you you saying your r's right." Becky tells her. Sara just keeps looking at her, and Becky brings her hand up to Sara's head, and runs her fingers through Sara's long brown hair. Sara leans forward, and puts her hand on Becky's forehead, and rubs her hairless scalp. Becky laughs a bit at the touch of her daughter's palm on her head. "Nothing there anymore babe." Becky says with a smile. Sara obviously is worried about her mother, and pulls her hand away. "It's ok babe...Momma isn't upset."

Sara looks down at the floor for a minute, still feeling bad about rubbing her mother's bald head. She looks up again, a tear welling up in her eyes, and asks her mother, "Momma, I'm saw-we..."

"Babe, it's ok..." Becky tells her trying to ease her daughter's worry, "Nothing you could do can upset me right now." she tells Sara.

Sara looks at her mother, and asks, "Momma, you gonna be ok?" Sara asks.

Becky just smiles at her, "I don't know babe, but I'm trying. Believe me, I'm trying."

Becky pulls her daughter close, and begins to whisper too her, "I'm not going anywhere babe, not for awhile...don't worry."

With that, Becky lets Sara go, and lays back down.

"Go get daddy, tell him mommy wants to talk to him."

Sara just nods, and gets down from the chair. As she walks out, Becky waves goodbye to her.

Mom really did try. She fought long and hard against that disease. For awhile, she even looked like she might beat it. There was a period where the doctors had told her the cancer was gone, and that she was in good shape. It was the happiest day of my life, the day mom came home with that news.

It lasted for awhile too. About six months. Mom had even begun training again. The bills for her treatment had cause Will to start wrestling again, but he only did it locally, not wanting to be too far from home. Mom was looking forward to the possibility of competing again too. She had one match with a group called ACW. She won the match, but it wasn't good to watch. She missed her mark often, and was exhausted early, having to be carried through the rest of the match by her opponents. She just barely squeaked out the win in the end. Most people would think it a success, to win your first match after beating cancer, but not mom. That winning wasn't what mattered to her.

From there, it looked like clear sailing, and mom just had to work on getting her ring rust worked out, but we let our guard down. It wasn't long after that match that again, Mom had to go to the doctor. Despite having had her ovaries, and uterus removed early after finding the cancer, it came back, having spread throughout her body. It was everywhere, her colon, her breast, even into stomach, and lungs. It was more then she could take. She decided against treatment, and choose instead, to just live out the rest of her days as she could....they weren't many.

Four months later, she passed away. Will woke up in the middle of the night, with her motionless next to him. Jane and I had been sleeping in our room, when we heard the ambulance pull up, and the commotion of Will pleading with the EMTs to save her. I ran up to their room, where a EMT was frantically trying to revive her, but it wasn't happening. I watched them load her onto the stretcher, and take her too the ambulance with a sheet covering her body...I was totally convinced it was a dream.

SFT was there for us. Everyone from the organization's past had shown up out of the woodwork to pay their respects. Jeff King walked up to the casket, and placed his hand on her chest. I could've sworn he mouthed the words, 'thank you'. Kevin from XCW made a appearance, be it brief. Dave Steel, brought a special arrangement of flowers, yellow roses, arranged in a way that it resembled the XCW Heavyweight Title belt. He laid them softly so they draped over her shoulder and chest. It really looked like she was holding a title belt there, she looked like a champion.

XCW alumni that had since left SFT made appearances. Kyle Murphy hadn't been seen in SFT for awhile when mom died. Everyone was surprised when he showed up. I don't know why, though. I know he and mom had a few moments together in XCW, and it would only be right for him to come that day. He walked passed Will, both exchanging a look, walking up straight to me, as I stood next to mom's coffin. He kneeled down, and hugged me, and with tears, he asked me to forgive him. I didn't know what he was talking about, but I said I forgave him anyway. It was the first time I had ever met Dan Lloyd, face to face. At first, no one would let him talk to me, but finally with Will standing behind him, he came to me, and gave me his condolences. He went to put his arms around me, but Will intervened. I still don't quite know why.

Shadow, Harold, Megan, Madd Dogg, Pandora. They all came, if only for a little while. Pretty much everyone, except the Pettises. I hadn't seen or heard from my real father for years at this point. Mom had long since given up forcing me on him, and any attempts to get child support were fruitless as well. But it didn't matter, they didn't need to be there.

I remember, riding in the car behind the Hurst, and getting to the cemetery. Despite the fact that it was to be a private ceremony, somehow it had gotten out, and the XCW fans showed up in numbers. Each one with a sign, or a t-shirt. I remember looking out the window, and hearing them chant the letters, X-C-W, X-C-W, X-C-W, continuously. I looked towards Will, a tear rolled down his cheek.

The next day, I made my last appearance at a SFT event, until my first match for the Lethal Lottery. A tribute for Mom was done, and myself, Will, Jane, and the Twins were in attendance. It would be another ten years before I would get another chance to live life backstage at a SFT event...