So, my mom's friend... I'll call her Mary. Mary has five children. One of them, I'll call her Christine, was diagnosed with breast cancer about five weeks ago. Stage 3, which is pretty advanced. So she has been undergoing chemotherapy since her diagnosis. Christine is married and has a five year old. A different daughter of Mary's, I'll call her Lucy, has had a congenital heart condition since she was born. She's undergone about nine surgeries and about two weeks ago, she was having a lot of heart problems due to being stressed about her sister's cancer. She went to her doctors and they decided to do this procedure where they shock her heart to get it beating regularly again. She went in for the surgery, and when they shocked her heart, she coded on the table. The doctors did everything they could to save her, and luckily, they were able to get her heart beating again. Lucy is okay now, but still having issues due to the surgery.
A few days later, Mary's sister in law wasn't feeling well, went to the doctor, and the doctor found out that she had advanced Lymphoma. The cancer was spread so far that they gave her ONE WEEK to live. She was living a normal and healthy 50 year old life, and all of the sudden, it came to a halt. She was dead within a week. It was so unexpected, and really rocked the whole family. Mary was really exhausted with dealing with her daughter having cancer, her other daughter having issues with her heart condition, and with her husband's sister having just died so unexpectedly (plus, Mary and her husband were the ones who were left in charge of figuring out her will, and all of her arrangements).
Okay, so things started to settle down a little bit. Then, about two weeks ago, my mom got to work and she was called into her boss's office when she first got there. Her boss let her know that she would be getting a phone call soon from one of her employers calling out for the day, (my mom is a supervisor) and that it was going to be a big thing.. and my mom asked who it was that would be calling out, and her boss told her that it would be Mary. My mom said she just felt like crying, because Mary had been through so much in the last few weeks anyway. She went back to her lab and an hour later, Mary called her sobbing.
Mary's daughter Christine, the one with the cancer, she got home the day before from work. She had picked her daughter up from school and when she got home, she thought it was odd that her husband's car was in the driveway. Her husband is a policeman, and he works during the evening, and usually isn't home when she gets there. She couldn't find him anywhere in the house, and so she went next door to ask if they'd seen him, and her next door neighbor (also a cop) mentioned that maybe he was down in the basement working on something. So, she went back over and went downstairs to the basement, and found the most graphic, horrific scene... her husband had shot himself, and was dead on the ground. Her daughter was standing at the top of the stairs, so she ran back up, grabbed her, and ran out of the house screaming.
So, Mary has dealt with her daughter's diagnosis with advanced breast cancer, her other daughter's issues with her heart, the sudden death of her sister in law, and the sudden suicide death of her son in law.
How many awful things can happen to a person in one month? I really feel so horribly for this family, it kills me and I wish that there was something, anything that I could do. Of course, there is nothing, except to think of Mary and her family often, and hope that things get easier for them in the future.
So, next time you think that your life sucks or that you have too much to handle, just remember that there is always someone fighting a harder battle...
2 comments:
wow...that's too much for one person to handle...
omg thats horrible!
Post a Comment