Dear Santa – Gifts for Patients, Survivors and Caregivers?

 

Cancer Always Calls Collect – Part 2 – Dear Santa – written in 2012

I saw a Dear Santa mail box today and decided I might as well write a letter. I am looking for a miracle and maybe the spirit of Christmas will help me.  I never thought I would be doing this again. Who knew I would be hand-holding someone else through chemo and watching the dark cloud of cancer hanging over another member of my family.

Everyone looks at me like the wide-eyed faces of a Keane painting, thinking that I can provide the answers and a cure. We all know that sometimes miracles happen, and sometimes they don’t. Some days are good, and some days go by slowly as the fatigue sets in and he realizes that he is fighting cancer.

He was always a winner, yet life is now denying him, which is harder to digest than the food he sometimes painfully consumes. His eyes lack light, and sometimes flashes of anger fill the room. He has become a shell of what he once was. We both know the odds, and he quietly says if he survives all of this it is because of me and how I have taken care of him.

Once again they all think I can provide positive results and I silently shake my head. Through the years I have felt it was always my fault, but if he dies will it be upon my shoulders once again?  All I can do is provide what I know – love, compassion and a lot of hard work. We all know that’s not enough, and if I fail what will I tell the others? My stomach rolls and fear sets into every vein of my body. No one seems to understand how accountable I feel, and quickly I push the thoughts under the nearest invisible rug.

I know Santa does not exist but I  will write the letter anyway, because I need hope.  I am not and cannot be the answer – after all I’m only human.

 

So how can you remember those who have passed, and those who have survived? What would make a wonderful gift?

Run, don’t walk to Valley Granite and Tile on Bridge Street in Carleton Place. You know the place owned by our very own Carleton Place super heroes Lisa and Brad Occomore?

Mystic’s Haven and Valley Granite and Tile have teamed up for a CANCER FUNDRAISER! For every wine glass, coffee mug or beer mug, $8 from each item is going to the Cancer Society. Each item sells for $15 each. You can have them personalized and your choice of ribbon color! Stop in to Valley Granite & Tile to order your glass!!

Someone will love you for this perfect gift. Trust me!

 

 

127 Bridge st in Carleton Place

Carleton Place, Ontario

(613) 492-2522

http://www.valleygraniteandtile.ca/

 

October 13, 2013 – Thanksgiving– Breast Cancer Awareness Month

To all those suffering from cancer and to those that take care of them.. My utmost respect and love. Posted for Breast Cancer Awareness Month 

Part 15 – October 13, 2013 – Thanksgiving

I watch him slumped over in the chair as the day comes to an end. It has been just a little over a year that he was diagnosed, and now we embark on his estimated final year.  No one can tell you when you are going to die, but I wonder if he is grateful for each moment of life he has been granted. If it were me, I would be taking life moment by moment, complaining very little, and being thankful for the little things that mean a lot. If anything I would appreciate my pulse each and every day.

As I watch him sigh, I know he must be scared living each day like a game of Russian Roulette. Does he close his eyes at night and wonder what the future might bring? Is he happy that he has overcome a lot this past year?

We both have our good days, bad days, and weary days, but each day I get through them and become stronger. I try to spread my spirit to him, hoping even a fragment might help his thoughts. Be thankful for one more day that is added to your life I tell him. Enjoy the morning light and the moonlight, as the light allows him to continue to shine through the darkness of cancer. Life isn’t meaningless, even if you are sick.

Don’t be angry with the world I tell him, because each added day is gift – not because you need it, but because someone else needs you. In the end your family is your legacy and today on Thanksgiving we are grateful for the days, weeks and months that have been added to his life. There are 1,440 seconds in a day, and I am using one right now to say thank you and overjoyed he is still alive.

 In memory of Angelo Seccaspina

From Cancer Always Collect

Please support Rachel— Rachel does not have breast cancer–but she and her family need our help.