weekend

This has been a weird – and sad – weekend. Some good things happened this weekend too, though. As you know if you read my blog, my mom is fighting breast cancer. Well she was feeling really tired last week because her white blood cell count was low. They gave her shots to boost them and by Friday she was much better. So she was able to get her 2nd chemo treatment. Sounds funny that being able to get chemo is a good thing, but it is! Plus, we found out at the appointment that the tumor has already shrunk quite a bit. Yay! That means the chemo is working, thank God. She’ll still have to have surgery and radiation after that, but getting rid of the cancer cells is what we want! Even though mom was feeling better, towards the end of the week, her hair started to fall out. She had each of us cut some and sported a crazy, spiky hairdo (at least in the house) for a few days. Today mom went to see Tracie, a friend who is a hairdresser, and had her head shaved. She has two wigs and some scarves and caps she can wear… I know it was hard for mom, but she’s dealing with this a lot better than I would, that’s for sure.

This weekend was also full of sad news. First, we learned that Tracie’s mother-in-law had just passed away. I didn’t know her mother-in-law, but it’s still sad.

Then, while we were out getting my mom’s medicine Saturday, we got a call from my mom’s friend Melanie telling us that an old family friend, Danny, had suddenly died of a massive heart attack. It was also the first anniversary of Melanie’s dad’s death. Eerie. Danny grew up with my parents, was my mom’s second cousin, was in their wedding, served along with his wife as my baptismal sponsor and spent lots of time driving around and talking with my dad when he was sick. He had this huge, toothy grin and a larger than life laugh – that’s how I will remember him.

Then tonight I heard from yet another friend whose dad passed away five days ago.

Obviously mortality and the possibility of losing another parent have been weighing heavily on my mind lately. April 6 marks two years since my dad died of lung cancer….as the date gets closer and closer, memories keep rushing back to me of his time in the hospital. I wonder if this will always be the case or if that part of it will go away. I miss dad every single day, but I was again reminded after hearing about Danny how lucky we were to have had so much time to spend with him before he died.

Found this great quote from John Barrymore and it made me smile: “The good die young - because they see it's no use living if you've got to be good.” So I’ll sign off now because I’ve got a lot of living to do! ;)