Cancer Sucks
This a story that I ran a couple years ago. Fortunately my step-daughter is now cancer free but unfortunately, there are other friends and family that have passed during this time.
You always think it's going to happen someone else. You see and hear the stories about what "that other guy" is going through with cancer. A few years ago it hit home.
This was and still is a personal story for me and my wife, Tonya. We celebrate our 14th anniversary of being together this month. When were married in 2010. She gained five step kids (two daughters and three sons) and I gained a stepdaughter. I know you...you're thinking the Brady Bunch, right?
Well, a couple years ago we heard the words that you hope no parent ever has to receive, "I have breast cancer." Julie, Tonya's only child and my step daughter, called us to confirm what we were feared.
We flew down to Phoenix to be with her as they removed a mass from her breast and one lymph node. After the surgery and further tests it was confirmed that the surgeon removed all the cancer. Whew...relief! But the journey wasn't over.
Eight rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. The chemotherapy would be every other week ending the last Friday in October of that year. Then it was six straight weeks of the radiation.
We cried, we laughed, we prayed and prayed some more. Julie grew up in Sedalia and was a graduate of Sacred Heart.
I've included a link to the story that tugged at the heart. At the time Julie was a teacher in an inner city Catholic school in Phoenix. She is excellent at what she does. The love of her students for her proved this. I hope this story will make you both happy and sad but will ultimately make you take the time to hug those that are close to you, make a phone call to those that aren't and pray for all that are fighting this dreadful disease.
***Note-Since that time Julie lost her dad, Warren Seiz, and an uncle, Harold Seiz, to cancer.