Remember Laura?

A couple of weeks after my mastectomy, I got news I was going to have a second surgery because I had a few renegade cancer cells that showed up in my sentinel lymph nodes. It was hard news to hear.

That day, we met Laura. You can read more about her here.

She put my whole day and my whole situation into perspective that day. What I had going on was NOTHING compared to others. (I’m not gonna lie…she also made me absolutely terrified of the results of my full body scans to see if the cancer had spread.)

I only knew her for an hour or two, but she definitely touched my heart. Even with death looming over her, she came across as so brave and strong.

I know, I know … what are you going to do if you don’t have a choice, right? But, I am not sure that I could hold a stable conversation about my impending death from cancer without breaking down. Heck, KNOWING that I have no metastasis, I can’t even talk about the fact that have had times where I wondered if I would die without breaking down.

As I wrote in the post about her that day, I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough toward the end of the trip. I was fighting back tears and knew I couldn’t do it much longer, but I definitely didn’t want to break down in front of her. That’s exactly what she DIDN’T need.

As soon as we got out, I lost it…so much that a security guard at the airport approached to ask if I was okay. I kind of think he thought Alan was abducting me or something.

Well, Laura’s one wish was to make it until May 2013 to see her daughter graduate from high school.

I was happy to see that each time I Googled her leading up to May 2013, I never got any results back. She made it.

But, she still weighs heavily on my mind so I have continued to search for her obituary every few weeks. I searched tonight to find out that she passed away on December 17. She made it to graduation and even to Thanksgiving, but was just short of one last Christmas.

She leaves behind a young daughter who doesn’t get to have her mom help her plan her wedding or to be there for the births of her babies. She leaves behind a huge void for a husband who has watched her slowly die over the past few years.

Please say a prayer for her family. I’m sure they need it right now. Cancer is such an ugly, awful disease.

9 thoughts on “Remember Laura?

  1. My husband has the same type of cancer as Laura did. It was a heart-wrenching moment to get the diagnosis. We are grateful for each day even though we know there isn’t a cure. I am thankful that Laura was able to live as long as she did and reach important goals. Our prayers are with her family and the void she left.

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