Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Thoughts About My Friend

Back in high school I was good friends with a girl named Kathie. We grew into young women together, and while we don't see each other very often anymore, we've never lost touch over the years or gone more than a few months without some type of contact.

Kathie got married right around the same time as my husband and me. I was in her wedding. She had a son a couple of years before I had my son. She lives in a house in the same area of town as I do. She works full time, is a busy wife and mother, she'd always like to lose a few pounds, and she still likes rock and roll.

We've lived very similar lives up until the day last April when my Mom died and then one week later she found out her husband had brain cancer.

Since that time she's watched her husband go through chemo and radiation. She's watched him have two surgeries; one to remove a tumor, the most recent to remove part of his brain. At first her husband was sure he was going to beat this, but as his condition worsened he started making plans, getting finances in order, and doing little things like making sure Kathie new how to start the lawn mower. She's tried to protect her 13 year old son from being unnecessarily worried up to this point, but now she's trying to slowly prepare him for the worst.

Today Kathie's husband had a scan which revealed the cancer is back. This time there is no treatment but to keep him comfortable, and the doctors are giving him about two months. I can't help but think what if that had happened to me instead of her? What if I'd have been the one?

I look at my two children and their happy, healthy little group of friends and wonder, "Will one of them marry an alcoholic? Will one of them marry a person who will get cancer? Will one BE an alcoholic? Will one HAVE cancer?" I guess we all have our burdens to bear in this life and we don't know from one day to the next what our path will be. We just have to trust God and hope that whatever He has in store for us is no more than we can bear.



Please pray for my friend Kathie and her son. They need all the prayers they can get.

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