My mom is much more than just a cancer survivor
My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was in middle school. Some may say I was too young at the time to fully grasp what was happening, and I would have to agree with them. But I would also say it was something that has left an impact on my family.
I was always optimistic about it. It never once occurred to me that my mom wasn’t going to be OK. But I was always very reserved about it, too. I think I felt if I kept my distance from the situation, I could handle and cope with it better.
Everybody handles sickness in their own way, and if I could offer any advice to anyone in a similar situation I would say the most important thing is to just offer companionship, offer friendship and offer love. Sometimes that’s all you can do.
I don’t remember everything about what happened during that time, but I can say with certainty that some small details stand out with startling clarity. Crying and hugging my mom after she first told me, walking into the kitchen one night to find my dad shaving my mom’s head because she was sick of her hair falling out; my mom asking me to put together a playlist of happy songs for her to listen to during chemo, the first Race for the Cure we walked after my mom was in remission.
When it’s all said and done, I think my mom’s diagnosis was just a chapter in her life. She always emphasized to me and my sister that this was something that wasn’t going to bring us down, and it hasn’t. It will always be something none of us will ever forget, but it’s in the past.
My mom, the complexities of her personality and her being, can hardly be summed up by the two words “cancer survivor” and I don’t think she’s ever let it encapsulate who she is. She’s always been so much more than it.
When someone in your family gets cancer, I’ve come to the realization that it’s either going to break the family apart or its going to band them closer together. And my family was fortunate, because my mom is doing great today and so are we. As a daughter it is so indescribably painful to have to watch your mother go through something like that, but I now see my mom is a fighter and a survivor. Her diagnosis didn’t and still doesn’t define her. And she constantly amazes me.
