Half Way There!

Radiation and chemotherapy are already half way over! Yippee! My mom is looking forward to this first round's completion, as she will then be able to return home to California! There is a big bell for patients to ring when they complete their last radiation treatment, and we are looking forward to that moment on Feb. 15th!

The following day, we will be on a plane bound for Sacramento. We booked our flights and are looking forward to bringing Grandma Lorraine home. Being the organized person my mom is, she is getting all her "ducks in a row." We have appointments with doctors and financial planners to get all her affairs in order when we get back to Red Bluff.

She also has an appointment at the funeral home, as she wants to pay off all the expenses for the funeral, casket, etc...she even asked the funeral director if they could help us put together a DVD of photos and music for her "Celebration of Life Luau." If she pays for everything now, we hope they would let us use this one service ahead of time.

I often stop and realize we are discussing every detail that will surround her death, and her wishes when that time comes. We don't know the time or day, but we do know she will be prepared to leave this earth with everything in order, and most of all, having shared all her thoughts with each of you at the Luau.

My mom looks good and acts so chipper all the time. Yet, when I saw her balding head today, or when I see that she is out of breath over a small task, those are the signs that all is not as it was a few months ago.

Cancer doesn't give you a day off. It doesn't give you a day where everything is back to how it once was. I suppose though that it doesn't have to. If we had that "day off" we wouldn't be discussing the many things we need to have ready and in place. If she had that day off, she might miss an opportunity to share how she feels about someone. Awareness over the finality of my mom's prognosis is leading her to cherish each day and live it fully. She leads her life like the Irish proverb: Dance as if no one were watching, Sing as it no one were listening, And live every day as it is were your last. Shouldn't we all?