Team SpenWen takes walk around Jupiter park

Susan Spencer-Wendel sits surrounded by her SpenWen teammates.

About 50 of Susan Spencer-Wendel's relatives, friends and former co-workers gathered Saturday for a mid-morning walk through Jupiter's Carlin Park.

Walking as Team SpenWen, we raised over $15,000 for ALS Research. Susan who was diagnosed with ALS in June 2011 paid for the team T-shirts as a way of thanking those who joined the walk in her honor.

Susan spent last summer writing her memoir "Until I Say Goodbye" on her iPhone using only her right thumb. It will debut on the March 31 New York Times bestseller list as No. 3 in the hardcover non-fiction category and No. 2 for nonfiction ebooks. She spent her past year making memories with her family and friends.

First family

Susan, ever gracious, willingly posed with everyone who asked. Here she is with her adoptive family: mom Tee Spencer to the left, sister Stephanie Parlamento standing in the back and her dad Tom Spencer to the right.

The driver

Her older son, Aubrey, took command and pushed her wheelchair, sometimes too quickly, for the entire mile course.

The colorful hairdresser

Kerri Olah-Brennan, owner of @The-Hair.Net in Lake Worth and who sometimes makes house hair calls, dressed in this colorful tutu that her goddaughter's boutique made. That's Aubrey in front, wearing mirrored sunglasses and getting ready to lead the team around Carlin Park.

 Walking backwards

Susan's former co-worker at The Palm Beach Post and friend Joel Engelhardt walked backwards to fulfill his promise to those who donated to him for the ALS walk. His dog, Shanti, walks forward.

@aGuyOnClematis walks

When Susan was a courts reporter for The Post and just learning to tweet, @aGuyOnClematis (aka Aaron Wormus) encouraged her tweets and grew to love following her trial coverage via Twitter. Even though Susan's updates were confined to 140 characters, she tweeted to make her Twitter followers feel as if they were in the courtroom with her when they were supposed to be working.

The Wormus family: mom Stella, older daughter Annie and dad Aaron

Reader focused

Susan remains focused on her readers and gladly agrees to sign her memoir with her thumbprint, the one she used to write the book. Here she is with her husband John helping her to sign a copy for her cousin Mona Motz on the right.

California connection

Her birth mother flew in from California for the walk. Don't you think that Ellen Swenson and her daughter Susan share the same smile?

Holding Baby Roman

Former Post co-worker and friend Rochelle Gilken brought her 7-month-old baby to the walk. She put Roman in Susan's lap while her hairdresser Kerri ducked behind the chair and reached around to hold onto Roman's overalls. The result? Happy Susan and Roman with a careful mom reaching in to catch her son.

My favorite part

I loved wearing this tag around my neck during the walk, it summed up how I felt.

Often referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease, or LouG as Susan calls it, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive, fatal neuromuscular disease that slowly robs the body of its ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. The life expectancy of an ALS patient averages 2 to 5 years from the time of diagnosis.

And now, for my numbers

I had my best walking day last week on Saturday, March 23, 2013, when I walked:

Steps: 11,929

Miles: 6.0