CANCER SUCKS!!!

It’s still hard for me to fathom that, just 5 months after this picture was taken, my mom was gone.
She had been diagnosed with cancer January of that year. To a fourteen year old, I knew she was going to die, but in my mind, it would be 20 years or so down the road. How was I to know?
That summer was unbearably hot and muggy. I don’t recall a summer before then to have been that oppressive. I had the opportunity to go to the National Ministries Conference in Montreat, North Carolina, that July, where our choir was the headline entertainment. I was a soloist, and was thrilled! And it was so cool in the mountains.
When I came home in August, my mom was already bedridden. It was practically overnight. One of us always had to stay with her, but she didn’t like us to hover. We learned a lot of solitaire games that summer.
School started the day after Labor Day. Friday of that week she was taken to the hospital. I went to see her Saturday, and she was already in a coma. On my way home from the hospital, she died. September 12, 1970, at 4:05 pm.
My life has never been the same since. Death turns one’s life inside out.
I’m grateful for my faith that I’ll be reunited with her, and all my other loved ones, who have passed from this life to the next. It brings me comfort and peace.
What are you mulling around this memories Monday?
A Pocketful of Joy to Fill Your Day