I was in the middle of a Thursday afternoon messy desk when someone in our waiting room picked up Serenity’s memoir. The woman read the back jacket blurb and then flipped through several pages. Finally, she looked up at me and said, “Is this girl still alive?”
“Why, yes,” I said. “She’s our daughter, actually. She’s had three or four bouts of cancer since that book. But she is quite healthy and happy now.”
Then I went back to my messy desk while the reader kept flipping pages. A few minutes later, she looked up again and said quietly, “Did she get to have the baby?”
Oh. My. Heart.
How soon I’ve forgotten those desperate days when we didn’t know the ending of this story. How quickly I have moved from, “Dear God, let them live,” to “What time is the ballgame Friday night?”.
Yet, it hasn’t been quick at all. It’s just that the wonderful parts of the past ten years have overshadowed the frightening parts, and sometimes I forget. At least for a minute or two.
I shoved all the Very Important Papers to the back of my desk and walked out into the waiting room. “Yes,” I told the lady. “She had that baby, and here he is today.” Then I showed her this picture.
Sometimes, it’s okay to give away the ending of the book.
Oh man, it feels so good to cry sometimes.
Yes but not at work!!!
Sorry about that, Debbie 🙂
What Seren said. And I am so grateful that the good memories have overtaken the bad. Hugs to both of you!
Hugs back. To you and Seren.
I keep typing and deleting, because I can not find the words powerful enough to say what I want. Here are a few I erased: it is not easy to type through tears, grateful, thankful, happy, wonderful piece of writing, and sweet picture of such a cool little man. What a blessing to be able to share your story with this person! It might have been just the inspiration she needed.
I just recommended Seren’s book to my boss, literally yesterday. His wife who is fairly young is getting her stint next week for 3 to 4 months of chemo. She had the mastectomy surgery a couple weeks back and they are treating her cancer very aggressively. He knows they are in for a long road. I sent him the Amazon link and he was quiet for several minutes and then came back with “That’s cool. I’ll get that for her.”
Seren, even as your future story continues to unfold, your past story is changing lives.
You’re the best, Carol. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for saying that.
Oh yes, how soon we forget, but things like that are better that way.
I cried reading most of the book and wondered how anything could
get any worse, and then it did… and then there was more, and then
and now there is this beautiful wonderful person, Serenity, who shared
the good and bad with the world.
The blessings of this little man are so powerful! We serve a mighty
God who is there for us ALL THE TIME!
Well, I’m not sure who wrote this lovely comment, but I appreciate it deeply!