A Daughter’s Love

Many of us have been through a time where we have heard the phrase, “One of your loved ones has cancer.” It is normally the hardest phrase to hear and one that can hit you like a brick wall. Most of the time you will hear how cancer affects the person diagnosed, but this time I want to give you a brief idea of how the people around the person diagnosed feel. For me, the first time I was six years old and being so young I did not fully understand what was happening. I remember asking myself, what happened to Mommy’s hair? And asking my dad why Mom was crying after her doctor appointments. Then, fourteen years later, and going through my sophomore year at college, my mom sits me down and tells me they found something. A spot, a tiny microscopic spot in my mom’s breast. I sat there and listened to her explain with numb ears. Why was this happening? In the middle of a pandemic, to my mother? I did not understand, nor did I want to.
The doctor said she was lucky because the spot was a different cancer than her original diagnosis years prior. I remember going to work later after she told me the news and on my break I calmly went outside and cried. The only thing I was thinking was staying as put together as I could for my mom even when all I wanted was to fall apart. I needed to be strong for her, unless no one was looking. After understanding what was happening, it was the most afraid I had been in my life. I did not know what true fear was until then.
A few weeks later the doctors told my mother the only way to get rid of the cancer was to get a mastectomy. The word no woman wants to hear and she ended up having a double mastectomy. However, something was realized after all was said and done. My mother’s mammogram was scheduled for May, but she kept putting it off and she did not get it done until early October. When the doctor had found the cancer he told her it was so small that if she had come in during May they would not have seen it until her next mammogram a year later. Meaning, if she had not waited then things could have been a lot different.
I thank God every day for a mother as strong as mine, because through it all she hardly shed a tear. So, if I am a strong woman it is because a stronger woman raised me. Now, she is cancer free and I know that is not the case for everyone, but I want to say something to those who are supporting loved ones with cancer. Every day will be hard, but remember to love them and be there for them even when it seems too hard, because that is what real love is, it is loving unconditionally.