In our reality, cancer is everywhere. Cancer is like an inexplicable flash in the night sky; sometimes without an apparent cause, there it is. At age 36, the generation before mine is in cancer’s full grasp. The generation of my parents, their siblings, and their friends are coming forward with diagnoses too often for me to comprehend the statistics they prove.
Stacey is a few years older than I am. Too young by any measure to be diagnosed with lymphoma, but there it is. Stacey is the kind of person who would give her eyes so that someone born blind could see. She would say something like “I’ve had my time with vision, lets give someone else the opportunity to see a sunrise, or to feel the thrill of love as it beams from a lover. Y’know?” When she sent out a request for caregivers to assist her during chemo therapy, I made my plans.
Q.So what do you call a bald 40 year old with a bandage around her right bicep an immune system that’s fighting for its life? A. A daughter of God. B. A loving banner bearer of our Lord. C. My American hero. D. The sunshine of the 16th floor.
albaniacalling 