Christina's gift

It was great to hear Kathleen's voice today. Good news is that extensive test results confirmed her lymph nodes showed no signs of cancer. They also cleared good margins when removing her breast and she is now cancer free. Let me just pause on that for a moment....

She had stage 2 cancer. Apparently, she had two forms of cancer; a slower growing cancer and second more aggressive type. Therefore, she will need chemotherapy for a year. News that Kathleen is not enthusiastic about because she is the biggest advocate for naturopathic healing I know.

However, she counts her blessings as she knows it could have been different. During her return visit to the Moffit Centre, she saw a few women she met during her initial stay. Gina, a sweet woman, will need all her lymph nodes removed and undergo intense chemo. During their 4 hour wait for the doctor, they met several other families in very delicate situations.

It was a long 12 hour day - Kathleen, Halina, Felicity and Christina were all pleased to be home again. I did not realise it takes three hours to drive each way. She will have two more trips within the next week. That's 18 hours in a car just to see the doctors. However, she's receiving the best care. And for that, it's worth it!

All in all the day went smoothly. However, there was a moment that Kathleen said she was near meltdown. She was exhausted and couldn't bare the long wait to see the doctor. Just at that moment, her 8 year old daughter Christina sensed something and came up to her. As she patted Kathleen on the shoulder, she said "Don't worry Mama, everything is going to be alright. You see, I've drawn you a picture. You're in a hammock, relaxing on a beach between two palm trees". Christina handed Kathleen the gift.

From then on, Kathleen was filled with renewed energy to last her for the rest of the day.

Thank you Christina, for your gift of being. For your mom. For the world. I love you and am so proud of your bravery during this time.

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