by Becky Vieira posted in Parenting

My mom has cancer. I never thought I'd say that. Even today, months after her diagnosis, the magnitude of her situation still hasn?t penetrated completely. How could it" It's too frighting. She's my mom. How can she be sick"
For a million reasons I never believed it would happen to her. Even after she told me her doctor saw something suspicious during her mammogram. Maybe because she's had a few scares before. Or that deep down I believed she paid her dues. She lost everyone in her immediate family to cancer. Her brother and sister passed eight weeks apart from one another. Eight.
She was a nurse -- hell, she was a hospice director. Hasn?t she given enough" But that?s the thing. The one thing we all sadly know because we?ve all been touched by cancer. No one is immune.
Cancer is common, which infuriates me. But it?s true. Everyone has a story. Though right now I?m selfish. This is my family. The pain and fear grip me. I don?t want to know life without her. I don?t want my son to live in a world where she?s not there.
There are moments when it's not front and center of my consciousness. I can be okay, enjoy fleeting moments when I forget. Until I don't. She's sick. Our existence is no longer normal in the way we once thought it to be.
I cry for her. For my son. Their future together is no longer a guarantee. I suppose it never was, though for a while I had no reason to think otherwise. Now I do.
The day we found out the...