In Tribute: Rebecca Dague Marec

I remember when I met Rebecca Dague Marec. It was right before last year’s C3 Advocacy Training. I was sitting with Dusty Weaver (C3’s Grassroots Coordinator) and Judi Sohn (C3’s Director of Operations), doing last-minute planning, when in strode Rebecca with her luggage. And though I still had no idea who she was, this young woman from Ohio began to regale us with a breathless story of chasing Senator Mike DeWine down the jetway just an hour before as she had disembarked her flight.

Rebecca died late Thursday night, February 22. She leaves her very caring and loving husband, Alain, and their two small children, Julia and Andrew. And she leaves all of us, who learned a little bit more about life because of her.

I was pleased to be able to write about her in a recent issue of Momentum. As I interviewed her then and remembered back to that first meeting in DC, I kept picturing this dynamic woman who seemed constantly on-the-go. In fact, she related to me how she had run again after Senator DeWine during her town’s Fourth of July parade. And she tracked down Rep. Ralph Regula in a coffee shop town meeting, with such tenacity combined with prudence and graciousness that she was hailed by senior DC lobbyists as having achieved the “quintessential constituent lobby visit.”

Yet, Rebecca was obviously so much more than just this person on-the-go whom I knew. She was extraordinarily thoughtful in what she stood for and believed in and fought for. And even in last Saturday’s sleepless morning hours when I wept while reading the moving email from her husband reporting that she had passed away, it was Rebecca’s reflectiveness that shone through, as well as the love and mindfulness she bestowed upon her family even on the last day. True, Rebecca fought for cancer funding, but she fought that fight for her children and family and friends and for the multitude of people who needed someone to fight with and for them.

I so much wanted Rebecca to walk in that door again at this year’s Call-On Congress and regale me with a story. It aches to think that she won’t. Instead, she has left it to us to continue telling her story and the stories of so many whom we love and have loved.

On March 20 at C3’s Call-On Congress, I won’t be able to be on Capitol Hill without having a tear (likely, many more) in my eye. That much I know. But I also think I will be just a bit better advocate, on behalf of so many affected by cancer. Even after my 24 years in Washington, DC, Rebecca helped teach me how to be better at what I do. But more importantly, she reminded me why I do it. Though I knew her but briefly, I will profoundly miss her.