Meeting Momcologist

Today I met up with some Momcologist.  Often this is a moment of healing and joy and support. Today it was a moment of support. We gathered to support one of our own at her son's celebration.  It was a great bitter sweet event.  Laughter, tears, moments of deep sadness, some relief in coming together.  

Clearly a very extra ordinary person had his life hijacked from him. 

We often mention that a person lost their "fight" with cancer.  That is was a brave battle. They were a trooper, they soldiered on.  There was a positive attitude and braveness is always mentioned. We heard a lot of that today.  Everyone fought, everyone prayed, everyone pleaded, everyone did all they could to keep death away.  

I just don't ever want to hear that Daniel, or Micheal, or Alise or Ruby or Nala or Owen or Mario or Sarah or the endless others "lost". They are not losers. They did nothing wrong. They did not take a wrong step or fail to do something right or not do ever thing possible to conquer cancer.  It is not fair to say a child has lost a battle.  Winning and losing would be appropriate if there were rules of the fight.  Like the good old day when everyone agreed on what day the battle would take place. The child's life was hijacked. In many cases there was really nothing to be done at the end. 

They had cancer.  It is unpredictable. It is ruthless.  It does it's job in ways no one can figure out.  It is a very poorly designed invader/alien force. It has not figured out how to reach stasis.  It kills it's host.  It isn't just happy to settle into a bone, or a lymph node, or a kidney, along a nerve or an eye.  It wants more. It wants to see how it can continue to survive in other places.  Lungs, brains, other bones. 

Today I felt like we were all a strand in a web. The middle was Daniel and the stands and circles of web were populated with all the friends, families, care givers, teachers, neighbors, classmates, doctors, ministers.  Everyone in the web, there to say goodbye to the center of that particular web. 

The webs are fragile and each day have to be re-made.  When the center is gone and the strands are broken, a new creation has to be woven. Clearly he left much more of himself behind to help with that process.  

Daniel is gone. His life was ended by his cancer.  He is so much more than the kid that "lost" his battle with cancer.