After almost a year long battle with colon cancer, my mother passed away this evening, calmly and peacefully. She was the strongest woman I've ever known; even with setback after setback with repeated chemotherapy failures, she never gave up, never stopped living, and never once shed a tear for herself. She did more good things for this world than I could ever hope to match. It was almost as if she had held out long enough to enjoy one last christmas with us; the cancer grabbed hold of her only two weeks ago today. She'd been in the hospital since then, rapidly deteriorating. Every day she looked worse and felt worse. I will never ever see a more horrendous sight than that of my mother lying there in that bed, nearly unrecognizable, gasping for breath, not responding to the squeezes of my hand in hers. And now I'm glad that the pain is over for her. Wherever she is, she is at peace. None of this even seems real to me yet, that's the only way I'm able to write this now. But I have my family and friends whom I know that I can lean on for support. The gravity of all this will hit me eventually, someday, and I don't dread it. Because the pain won't last forever, tomorrow will always come, and time heals all wounds. There's not much that anyone can say to fix things, so I'm merely asking you to look around yourself and realize who it is that you love most of all, and make it known to them. Appreciate them and hold onto them. You will need them someday.
www.cancer.org
www.cancer.org