When a loved one has cancer and survives, you learn not to take life for granted.
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My mother is a breast cancer survivor. She had one mastectomy in 1996 and another in 2007; she was 58 years old for the first one and 70 for the second. Today she is 79 and still trucking along. What got her through? Luck and faith, her friends and survivor sisters, and her husband and sons—although we men were probably nowhere as helpful as the ladies.
My mother’s cancer was the first real awakening to the fact that all our days are numbered.
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What helps her to keep going now? Although we are all survivors in every sense of the word, we know the road ends in death. Even if you have a religious faith that assures you that this life on earth is not the end . . . we can never know with absolute certainty. But my mother’s faith gives her comfort and a social life. She has her friends—some younger, some older. She goes out quite often for lunch, to plays, movies, shopping, and to events for social justice causes.
She took me to Oklahoma City when I was ten and we protested for ERA. She introduced me to art films and took me to the theater as often as possible. She bought me cigarettes when I was an angry teenager. She took me to Shakespeare and taught me how to drive. She nursed me as a baby.
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I want to make the moments count as much as possible.
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Cancer in my family hasn’t been the culprit it has been in other families. Diabetes, Drug addiction, and mental illness have been our biggest complaints, with obesity being up there, as well. My grandfather suffered from emphysema and lung cancer and much of that was probably smoking related. But my mother’s cancer was the first real awakening to the fact that all our days are numbered. Both my parents have had the good fortune of living fairly long and healthy lives and as the decline for them continues, I want to make the moments count as much as possible.
My mother wants to see mountains and ocean and Shakespeare. My dad just wants the Longhorns to have a decent football and basketball team. Every family has their afflictions. We all have some disease lurking within us. The day may come when we live forever . . . or perhaps there is an afterlife of some kind. Until then, life is meant for living. Do something today that makes you and your loved ones feel good.
Photo credit: Flickr/Damian Gadal