Cancer strips away a layer of life that can never be replaced.
An adult, because of life experiences, can manage to work around that missing layer. But a child doesn’t have much to go on. How dare a cancer reach-in and grab a child’s life?
I spent the weekend with eight kids. Eight kids with cancer. Each one was an amazing example of the human spirit.
The littlest, a 5 year old, was feisty and loved being around the bigger kids. She wanted to be just like them. It didn’t matter that her hair was just starting to grow back and would eventually cover the scar across her scalp. It didn’t matter that she was paper thin and tired easily. She was a force….at five.
She didn’t see cancer in her older playmates either. She saw big kids whom she tried to mimic and she wanted no part of her mom hovering over her to make sure she was OK. ‘Heaven forbid, the big kids would see that!
Each of these children had a special kind of strength about them. I guess that comes with chemo and surgery and radiation. And their eyes tell the story of living with cancer too.
But it’s the armor that they wear that protects them from that missing layer of life. What cancer has taken away,has been replaced by some sort of magic skin that has covered them like a fine fitting glove.
It allows them to still be kids, instead of kids with cancer.
January 17, 2012 @ 12:00 am
That hits the target dead center! Great anwesr!
January 15, 2012 @ 9:36 am
Dude, right on there borehtr.
January 9, 2012 @ 7:33 pm
Laurie-I don’t know how you do it. I would like to think that a little of all of us were with those wonderful children this last weekend.
January 15, 2012 @ 1:46 am
Thank God! Someone with barnis speaks!
January 16, 2012 @ 9:32 pm
Ppl like you get all the brains. I just get to say tahnks for he answer.
January 9, 2012 @ 6:52 pm
I follow several kids with cancer…….blogs about what is going on with them specifically…..about some of their friends (kids they’ve met at Children’s Healthcare) who are also in the fight…and about those who lost their fight. If you want to see courage, look into their eyes. They fight. They endure. They struggle to be normal. They want to be like everyone else and not identified as a kid with cancer. The Mom blogs about the effect it has on the brothers and sisters not to mention the parents and grandparents. It is all encompassing. But I take great heart when I read how the family responds to critical situations….a rallying cry for prayers. I see how the family responds when all of them have a normal day or a normal fun day at Disney or at a playground. Kids should be immune to cancer and all other catastrophic diseases. Just let them be kids. Adult life is just around the corner. I see the pictures of them and their shiny bald heads but look more closely..their eyes. What I see their in their eyes is HOPE. You can’t miss it if you look closely. May God bless them all and heal them all.
January 14, 2012 @ 9:18 pm
I can’t believe you’re not plyiang with me–that was so helpful.
January 9, 2012 @ 5:31 pm
Nobody should suffer cancer but innocent children have not had their fair chance at life yet. My sister had a visit from a three year old yesterday whose parents were told last year she would not recover from e-coli but obviously she did. I hate cancer!
January 15, 2012 @ 9:08 am
A little raitolniaty lifts the quality of the debate here. Thanks for contributing!