Anne SG and the Big C

OK, no, I didn’t choose this quote as a reference to my new A-cup sized figure, no matter how appropriate it is.

 I got a package from Wireless catalog in the mail this week with a plaque that had this quote on it.  It was a Christmas present from my mom and it had gotten backordered–and it showed up this week, just days before my mother herself is scheduled to show up.  And I love this plaque because it’s true.

What has held me up through this experience is the little things–the gestures of thought I have received–each one touching my heart and strengthening me when I’m feeling horrible.  I have received cards in the mail, offers of help, flowers. . . each one unexpected and overwhelming in its simple generosity.  My two “managerial caretakers” as I like to call them–my friends (I don’t name them here simply because I don’t know if they’d want their names all over the internet) who have rounded up all the offers of help and put them into action–are amazing.  When I arrived home from the hospital , groggy, ill, and exhausted, meals began to show up.  Each afternoon my children arrived home, and dinner came with them.  My uber-organized girlfriends had set up a calendar online and anyone who wished to prepare a dinner for my family in January could sign up.

The calendar filled overnight.  Overwhelming.

Each of these meals required effort on the part of those who sent them; maybe an hour, maybe a half hour, maybe more, I don’t know.  But that’s not really important.  Each meal came served with a huge helping of simple human kindness that overwhelmed me.  It was simply a bonus that the food was incredibly good and abundant.  We have eaten amazing salads. . . pasta to die for . . . brownies. . . oh, the brownies!! My picky eater tried everything and has several new foods! Each night has been like a little mini-Christmas present.

All these small gestures–the meals, the cards, the well-wishes, the prayers, the You-tube video, the thoughts sent out to the universe, are really tremendous.  The friends who organized everything, who worked as a phone tree to get messages out when I was in the hospital–gosh, I just cannot express how valuable, how meaningful they are to me.

I think when I look back on this time in my life I will not recall the pain or the fear. I’ll remember all those people who held me up and reassured me that people are good and life is precious and worth fighting for.