My sister Nina is in training. This year, once again walking over 500 miles as she trains for what seems like a "mere 60 mile" walk in the Susan G Komen '3-Day for the Cure' Breast Cancer walk. She walks, as she has the last four years, with the C-Side Sisters, friends old and new, perhaps this year with a little more confidence. This year there's a small slice of victory.
You know how it is when you get to the age when someone on the fringes of your life's circle dies from cancer, a brain tumor, or fatal accident, and you say to yourself and those closest to you, "you know, one of these days, it's going to hit closer to home." And you wonder. "Will I be the one that it hits?" Will I be ready when it hits someone in my family? My best friend from school? My spouse? And silently, you go about trying to prepare yourself for that possibility. Over time you see the circle shrinking and mortality closes in as it creeps ever closer to my inner circle.
For 20 years or more, I prepared myself for the eventuality of cancer striking a family member. It's felt like the sick "game" I've heard of known as Russian Roulette, passing the pistol around the circle, spinning the chamber and knowing someone is going to be on the receiving end of the one bullet that's loaded inside the gun's own circular chamber, but not knowing who's going to get the bullet. For 20 years, waiting for the gunshot to sound and the reality to set in. The business of dealing with the shocking reality was finally at hand.
Perhaps not surprisingly, 20 years did not prepare me to hear the words that echoed in my head as the reality set in last year "My Mom has cancer." Even writing those words brings so much emotion to the surface that my eyes cloud with tears. The diagnosis of Breast Cancer was confirmed in early September 2010, and the whirlwind of doctors visits, tests, results, consultations, diagnoses, and recommendations – not to mention the emotional whirlwind – was fast and furious.
Five surgeries and much prayer, tears and stress later, mom is cancer free. She's back to doing everything she did before and more, now that her first Great-Granddaughter was born earlier this year. So this year, as Nina trains for her 5th and final year of the walk, fundraising and committing hours upon hours planning and attending countless fundraisers and in progressively longer training walks, each step brings her closer to a victory lap. She is walking to celebrate a win for our mom's health, for the friends and family who have survived and some who have not, she's walking for all of us, and she's walking for a cure to end breast cancer forever.
While there is much work to be done in the fight to end breast cancer, there is a victory. A small one overall, but a huge one for our family. So this year, Nina, take your victory lap! You've earned it!
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