It isn’t. Yesterday another person who was just getting his toe in the water passed away after a three year battle with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.
Matthew was diagnosed on my birthday in 2005. What is it with people being diagnosed so close to Christmas? It is strange how that seems to happen so often.
One year and one day later, Kelly’s parents were calling us. Laura came downstairs to tell me excitedly that the Grubb’s were on the phone. By the time I got upstairs, Laura’s face was ashen. Kelly had relapsed. I was stunned, heartbroken. Adam and I had seen Kelly nine months earlier at her high school prom. I would never have believed her cancer could return.
She had such a sparkle in her eye.
No fair.
One of the things I find so amazing as I watch so many of these stories unfold is the unbelievable courage and compassion that the mothers of these children reveal.
There is a bond they all share with one another. Their lives have been changed forever. They have a child that has been touched by cancer.
They don’t back away from this battle. They are tireless advocates for their children, and for others that are in different parts of this journey. They follow these stories on CaringBridge or CarePages websites.
They offer their support, encouragement and prayers. They stand by each other, raising awareness, fighting for these children. These Moms’s are tough. I wouldn’t want to mess with them.
So if I could level the playing field, I would like to put these Moms in a room with cancer and see who comes out on top.
My money is on this elite group of women.
Now that I think about it, that might not be a fair fight.
Cancer, you are so out of your league.
Every day I am grateful not to be one of those moms.
ReplyDelete*shrug*
Love and Light, Ross... This is a beautiful post. Thank you.
thanks ross - beautiful words. i would tell kelly what a privilege it was to take care of her. after all it's not so easy to be in her position of having to have things done for you when you're a young lady who is so independent.
ReplyDeletesometimes she felt guilty at what the disease had done to all of us...but i think she knew how amazed we all were at what the journey meant in our lives, she said she would never have traded her cancer experience - she loved the people she met (Kinney clan right up there at the top), she loved the places she went and the opportunities she had - God so richly blessed her for her obedience and her acceptance of her disease and her determination to make lemonade from the lemons...
thanks ross for just acknowleding "chemo moms".
love
patty