Illness

One of the people that I scrapbook with occasionally Annette has cancer. She was diagnosed last year, and she is now in hospice, nearing the end of her journey. It tears me up to think of her little daughter, who will be left without her mommy. I am so happy that she started a CaringBridge page. That is kind of like a blog where you can update the progress of how you are doing. Since Annette is nearing the end of her journey, her mom has taken it over. It is a truly wonderful way to stay in touch and know what is going on, and what little things to pray for. This was my first introduction to a CaringBridge. I have never followed one before. (At least not by someone I know.)

Next I was talking to one of my high school friends, Sandy and she shared that Jill's dad (a mutual high school friend), Chris fell while putting his deer stand up and it was very serious. I started following that CaringBridge as well. Though I didn't know him personally, I felt the need to pray and to follow. Thankfully he is doing pretty good, all things considered, and is on the mend, but still in the hospital. This is the second one that I follow.

Back in October I met Shirley at RSC. She was from Iowa and her 17 year old daughter was at Mayo getting cancer treatment for a rare cancer. Shirley is an amazing person, so strong, sweet, and has a wonderful sense of humor. After cropping with her a couple of times, and hearing more about her daughter, I started to follow her daughter's CarePages. (Essentially the same thing as CaringBridge.) That is number three.

Now I don't have to follow any of these caring pages, but like I said above, it helps keep me up to date, and to know what specifically to pray for. You can also leave comments encouraging the people, a prayer, a note, anything.

I never thought about that I had 3 people that I was following, until yesterday. Yesterday evening I got a call saying that a co-worker had passed away. It was very unexpected. She was a two time cancer survivor, a strong woman with a wonderful smile and sense of humor. She said that her secret goal in life was to make people laugh. And that she did. She was also a card maker and made beautiful cards. She was an all-around great person. We don't know yet what happened, although it appears that it was natural causes and happened fast. It is all just so sad.

All of this has helped me put things into perspective again. You need to make the small moments count. Don't take anything for granted.