Sabrina's Story

          Sabrina Black, was born Suzanne Easa on April 15^th 1970. She was the oldest of 7 children. Her father Les passed away when she was a teenager, and she had to help her mother Magie raise her siblings.

          Sabrina was an independent, intelligent and spirited woman with the greatest radio voice I have ever encountered.

          We met in 1996 when the radio station I worked for was changing names from Z-Rock to the Bear, and my Program Director, Joe Bevilacqua was looking for a new air personality. Joe is a huge sports fan and asked me to “get up early, and listen to the girl who was on the Fan”, the AM sports station in town (WDFN).

The next morning I woke up and was floored by the most amazing female radio voice I’ve ever heard. I called Joe right away and said, “Hire her today!”

A few weeks later Joe did hire Sabrina and we met at WWBR, 102.7 The Bear. We got along very well together right from the introduction. At the time we were both dating other people and had no idea that we would ever end up married. We were very good friends and talked to each other all the time.

After about 6 months of working together, we continued to spend time together, and became best friends. When both of our other relationships ended we just naturally kept getting closer. In truth we never even dated, we just became a couple and never looked back.

Just over 2 years later, Sabrina had moved on in her radio career and was back working at WDFN as a sports reporter with Stoney & Wojo, the #1 afternoon show in Detroit at the time. We had set a big date on February 8^th; I was picking her up at work and then taking her to dinner in Greektown. What Sabrina didn’t know, was just how much it meant to me that the first time I heard her voice was on the radio, so on those very same airwaves, I had arranged with Stoney to invite me on the air, where I presented her with a white gold, diamond and ruby ring and ask her to marry me. She was speechless, so it took a good 20 seconds (an eternity on the radio) to get her answer: Yes!

Almost exactly a year later, in January of 1999 we set off to get married in Hawaii. We had decided to stop in San Francisco for a night on our way and visit some friends. Sabrina was not feeling well; she had been having some problems with fatigue, headaches and swelling for the last 8 months. But that day in San Francisco she was having trouble breathing. We got Sabrina to a hospital and after a series of x-rays, Dr. White told us that Sabrina had some large tumors in her chest, one that was pressing against her heart and causing major blood flow problems.

Dr. White insisted that we start treatment right there in California. He labeled this as a “Medical Emergency.” Sabrina, who was pretty calm and even energized to finally, after months of feeling like crap, have an answer to what was making her sick, said “No Way. I’m getting married in 2 days.” After consulting with our doctors by phone, we asked for a steroid shot to temporarily reduce the size of the tumors, and we kept our plans, and flew to Hawaii the next morning

2 days later, on February 1^st of 2000, Sabrina and I had the most beautiful Hawaiian wedding in a tropical garden, with a little stream and waterfall nearby. We exchanged our vows, and with the exception of Sabrina’s voice breaking and quivering when she said “In sickness, and in health”, and me over emphasizing the same phrase, it was the most amazing 10 days of our life.

Over the next 6 years, we battled her cancer together. We embraced every day, and tried not to take things for granted. We found happy moments wherever we could.

Sabrina would prove to be one of the most courageous, bold, and resolute people on the planet. She had multiple types of chemotherapy, multiple areas of radiation, two bone marrow transplants. She suffered heart failure, graft versus host disease, kidney, liver and lung complications. She even had a nasty fall in the hospital that nearly claimed her life, but she never quit fighting. We were in and out of hospitals and the ICU more times that I can count and we faced it all with as much happiness and as many smiles as we possibly could. We were happy because at the end of each day we were both still alive and we both had each other.

The cancer unfortunately was just as stubborn as Sabrina was and it never let up. Treatment after treatment it would ease up and then come roaring back. The disease moved to her bones, brain and lungs and Sabrina lost her battle on March 20^th of 2006. However, she never did lose her smile, her spirit or her desire to help those who were less fortunate than us.