Last night A1 and I had to make the journey across the river to go to a visitation for one of his former co-workers wives who passed away on Friday. If it’s not already hard enough to lose a loved one this time of year, it’s even harder to lose your mother. My heart wept for her husband, but even more for her children. Granted her boys are older (17 and 14 respectively), so on the good side they are old enough to have stockpiled memories of their mother, and they are old enough to use each other for support, but it is never ever an easy thing to lose a parent, especially not as quickly as she progressed from fine to not fine. From diagnosis to this point it was literally only a month at best. Cancer though has a tendency to do such things.

It gave me flashbacks to when I was close to their age and dealing with MiniMommies own cancer diagnosis. SisterDear and I were 16 and 14 when her diagnosis was given. I still can clearly see her laying in that hospital bed post surgery, extenuating circumstances prevented her from having any of the normal methods of treatment like chemo or radiation so the only option left was surgical. That was the first time I was ever really afraid of anything, and I was terrified. Against all odds she survived, she is after all a fighter, and has lived now 14 years cancer free, but there’s always that fear that it will come back. As her oncologist said it may be a year, it may be decades but cancer always comes back. This was the third time it had reappeared for A1′s coworkers wife.

This Tuesday I will have those kids with me in my thoughts, as I get to celebrate one more Christmas with my own mother who has managed to beat the odds. My heart does break for them though, and it’s yet another reminder that at best life is fleeting so it’s so very important to cherish those that you love.

Climbing off my soapbox now