Today, I am a very happy gal :) I am happy because I am healthy. So many people take that for granted, but I am so grateful to be healthy and to be able to live my life to the fullest!
Almost two years ago, our family received some very scary news, my dear cousin, Clara was diagnosed with brain cancer, and given 16 months to live(correct me on the specifics!), obviously, she has outlived her 16 months and then some, and today, she got a CLEAN MRI!!!! Praise the Lord!!!!! I can't say that I know Clara real well, being that she is 31(?) and I'm 19, and that I've grown up very far away from her, but regardless, I love her dearly, and was so thrilled to hear the news this morning.
Since she has been diagnosed, I definitely think that we have been brought closer together, as an extended family, just as Graham's passing brought my immediate family much closer together. That's not to say that either one of these are particularly good or happy things to have to endure, but it's simply life. Life sometimes gets messy, chaotic, and doesn't always go by what we have planned, but it's how we react to what life gives us that shows and shapes us into the people we want to be. When Clara was diagnosed, our family essentially had two options: we could be sad and miserable, and just give up hope of anything, OR we could be happy, we can rejoice in the time that we have with her and rejoice in the person that she has become, obviously, we chose the latter.
Not only does this say a lot about our family, but it says a lot about who Clara is as a person. We ran a 5K to support the research at Duke in late March of last year, and that was absolutely an amazing experience. Team Clara(or Clara's Angels), came in as a first year team, and we had more than 500 people showed up to support her!! We raised an immense amount of money(I can't remember the specifics right now), and we raised Clara and our family's spirits. Clara is the most determined, strong headed, sometimes outright STUBBORN person I have ever met, and I love that about her. She is very much like me in that whatever happens, no matter how much life sucks, she will always, ALWAYS have a smile on her face. Her attitude about her cancer is simply amazing, and amazingly simple. 'When I die, I die. And I know that that is God's will, I know that God has numbered the days of my life, so when I die, I'll know that I've lived my life to the best of my ability, and I've done what I was meant to do. Until then, nothing will stop me from living my life'. THAT, my friends is an AMAZING attitude :)
Words cannot express the joy I feel today, knowing that she got a clean MRI. That doesn't mean the cancer is gone, because the cancer will NEVER be gone, but it means that she will be sticking around for a while, which is a major blessing for me, and for all of my extended family. I know that the war against cancer is not done, nor will it ever be done, but I also know that my cousin isn't going anywhere, at least not yet. That fact in itself, is the biggest comfort for me right now.
<3 Always,
Rose
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