Thursday, November 15, 2007

Circle of life

It's been a day of extreme highs and lows. I am totally wiped out.

This week we have found out that one friend, who has been battling cancer for months now, has very little time left. Tommy flew to Pittsburgh this week for some highly experimental surgery to remove the cancer...yesterday, they opened him up and the cancer has spread everywhere. There was nothing they could do. This just breaks my heart, he has such a powerful will to live but I don't know how much more he can take. A month ago they said even if he continues on the kick-ass chemo he has a year at the most.

Then, another friend. Laura. Was declared cancer-free after battling breast cancer. Now, this week, she found out that the cancer is back but it's ovarian this time. Her husband divorced her the first time she went through this, and she has no kids and no family nearby for support. She is scared.

Monday morning, Joey had one of his employees come and tell him that Friday will be his last day. Leonard was the fourth employee that they hired almost 14 years ago. Leonard has lung cancer, is going in for surgery next week and hoping he can beat it. In the meantime, he said he really just wants to LIVE.

My current client's 78-year-old wife was diagnosed last week with lung cancer. She is in Texas right now going through tests and I guess next week we'll find out what the prognosis is.

And then, this afternoon, I heard the worst of it all. The mother of one of Monkey Man's friends has cancer. Breast cancer. She is a very private person and was able to keep it under wraps until a week ago when she was spotted in town sporting a baseball cap and no hair. She's had a mastectomy and the prognosis is very good, and I'm really sad that I didn't know about this earlier. I don't know that there was anything we could do to make it any better, but I'd like to think maybe there's still something we can do.

The scariest part? She's my age. MY AGE.

When did I become "older", when did I get to the age when my contemporaries are starting to get cancer, to get divorces, to have parents dying? It's a sobering thought.

On the other hand, we had wonderful news today. Jay and Harry welcomed Baby #3, little Charlize at 5:37 tonight. Their son Quentin was spending the evening with us and he was so freaking excited that his sister had been born that it made me cry. Just so sweet. When I dropped him off at his house to stay with his grandparents, Harry's dad busted out some digital pics and all I can say is that she is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

I guess it's all the circle of life. On one hand, it's scary as hell. On the other hand, it's downright beautiful.

*****

I am thankful for the safe arrival of Charlize! Welcome, sweet baby girl!

4 comments:

MamaMaven said...

Nice post.

Tree said...

The circle of life.

Welcome, baby Charlize.

I am also saddened with all the news.

Esmerelda said...

Yeah. Something about times like these making to good times all the sweeter.

{hugs} to everyone. Makes my daily dramas such a waste of time when I could just LIVE.

Thanks for sharing...consider them added to the prayer list.

joansy said...

After having a friend's child develop brain cancer at 8 and having my sister-in-law die of cancer at 25, with a one year old child, I've quit thinking of it as an old person's problem. It sucks, sucks, sucks.

Welcome Charlize! (I love the name Quentin too).