My Grammie

I miss my Grammie. We lost her 6 years ago to lung cancer that had metastasized to her brain. She was diagnosed around Thanksgiving, she went through radiation in December, we brought her out here to take care of her at the beginning of January, and she left us just a few weeks later. I wouldn’t trade caring for my Grammie in her last days, but it was hard. Not hard taking care of her, hard to let her go and to watch her body give in to that horrible disease. Grammie did live a long, full life, but in my heart she wasn’t quite done living it. Cancer ended it.

I can still hardly believe she is gone. She was supposed to be here to teach us how to can our fruit and vegetables. She was supposed to be here to teach all of us girls how to quilt. She was supposed to go and visit her little brother out here in the Midwest. She was supposed to get to know my little girls. She was supposed to go fishing with my son. She was supposed to tell her stories to my older girls so they could write them all down and carry them on to generations.

We will always cherish our memories with Grammie – she impacted so many of us. But we must never stop fighting the horrible disease that took her before her time.

Within moments of her passing, Grampie spoke up and said, “Well, I kept my promise.”. When we urged him to explain he said that Grammie had made him promise when they were first together that she wouldn’t die and leave her behind. Such love. Such devotion.

Please do all you can. Support cancer research. Support cancer victims. Support cancer survivors. Support me in this blogathon now, and refuse to stop fighting.