Survivor

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and it means a lot to me because my mom is a Breast Cancer Survivor. She is now in remission but I still am in awe of her courage and faith during those difficult months. She had gone in for a mammogram just before helping Chad and I move to Boston with then, 5 week old Jack. While she was slaving away helping me unpack boxes, organize our tiny apartment, learn the ropes of motherhood, and figuring out how to get around in Boston, my dad called my mom to let her know that she'd received a letter or a call...or something from her doctor letting her know that they might have found something in her mammogram. She never said a word to me. It wasn't until a few weeks after she'd gone back home that she called to tell me she had breast cancer. Except for a few weeks for Christmas I was in Boston during most of mom's treatments. When I arrived home for Christmas that year the strong, hard working, copper haired mother that had helped me so much in Boston greeted me, looking so frail but with a beautiful smile and baseball cap on her head. While I was there I had the chance to go with her for one of her chemo treatments and I was in awe of the way she talked about all the other patients who were also having chemo. She knew their stories and she cared about them and offered them words of encouragement, never complaining about her own situation. When we walked in she mentioned to me that the nurse she really liked (the one who could always get the needle in the first time) wasn't there that day and that meant that she'd probably have to get poked a few times. Her hand was already unbelievably bruised from all the treatments she'd received and I watched as she quietly winced as the nurse took a few tries to finally get the needle in the weak veins. I don't know if I could have done what my mom did. At least not with the amount of courage and grace with which she did it. All the needles, terrible pain, numbness, uncertainty. I am amazed and proud. Enough of the sad stuff! Three years later my mom is at full strength, making beautiful quilts, tending a garden that is the envy of all neighbors, enduring a 12 year old beginner Saxophone player, and adoring and taking care of 5.5 beautiful grandchildren who adore her! She is a survivor! To hear her letter about cancer being read on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" (they got her name backwards but it's her) Click Here (After the short commercial/ad, her letter starts at 1:33) You can also click HERE to have $9 donated to Breast Cancer research. All you have to do is post a comment on Cass's blog.

Mom: Before



DURING


And After: ...Beautiful