Peaking into Other People's Battles with Childhood Cancer

As a friend comes home from Iraq and everyone prepares to greet him, I am reminded of the World War II soldiers that would just never really talk about their experiences. They would not delve into those painful and sometimes unthinkable things they had seen. We will never really know what it was like to be on the beach at Normandy or behind enemy lines. We will never understand the horrors people found in the concentration camps. We can read about it and we can listen and we can empathizie but we can not know.

I have been looking for the blogs of others in my situation. Moms of kids, caregivers of kids. I have been gathering the stories and following the tales. It is interesting and sometimes scary to find a blog where a similar situation is developing or where the story ends. I don't quite know why I keep looking. I guess I need to see how others handle this situation.

There are several, Rose, she died on February 13, 2006. Her parents left the blogging world, leaving only her obituary and pictures of her "fancy car trip" There is Diane whose daughter also died about 6 weeks ago. She continues to struggle with her loss. She is in so much pain right now. Her husband also died sometime back of cancer. She has a son and a world of hurt swirling around her. There is mother, who calls herself lizard Eater (not a pretty name). Her daugher is 8 months old and had two tumors removed from her kidneys but post surgery things are looking up. There is Lise, a mom with Leukemia, they live around here. There is Kate, she is done with her treatment and has been ALL free for 5 years. All of it is mindboggling and very worrisome.

Reading their stories give me a glimpse of the despair other's have as well as that feeling of helplessness. It is so hard to know what to do for anyone that lives so far away but to know so intimately their pain. The link will take you to a blog. She is a good writer. She will make a great minister someday.