On January 19, 2013 my mother was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, as her battle began so did mine. I vowed to help her in everyway I could for as long as I needed to until she was well and we could focus our lives on being happy again. She struggled but got through the rough times with a grace and acceptance that I don't believe I'd ever be able to match. Just after Christmas this year a small patch of cancer reappeared on her chest and she began taking an oral chemotherapy for it. Things went so well that in early April we were looking at potentially going off of chemotherapy altogether. However, her amazing oncologist suggested 'just for peace of mind' to have scans done prior to going off chemo. to 'make sure'. On April 25th we found out that her breast cancer had spread to her lungs despite being on Chemotherapy all along. We buckled down and braced for another battle, but after 6 surgeries in just as many weeks we were told that the cancer was to aggressive and the chemotherapy would not do the trick this time. We were given weeks, 'possibly' a month. She lived five difficult weeks and the last 72 hours of her fight were worse than any person of family should endure. Last Thursday morning at 4:09 a.m. I kissed my mom for the last time, thanked her and held her hand as she faded away from this world.

This story is a difficult one to tell but good came out of it. I found out that there are people in this world that will connect with you and reach out to you to offer a hand, shoulder, ear or whatever. Friends from this site have reached out to me and become extremely important to me. Once again, I am able to realize that I am a lucky girl. It is funny in a strange way though that those you thought would be there vanished into thin air and those you never would have expected came through with more determination and love than ever could have been expected.

Now I am starting over. I am going to find my way again and in time I will get back to writing and perhaps find a voice that will entertain again. I miss my outlet that is writing and look forward to tapping into this crazy imagination once I get enough sleep to decide what is what...

Meanwhile, I hope that all of my friends will encourage their friends and family to go to their doctors and get screened for cancer.