[OT, OOP] My mom, was Re: [Sca-cooks] My Dad...

[Elaine Koogler]

Sounds like a wonderful, courageous lady indeed.  I know what you mean about
the birthdays, however,  My mother died at 46 with what started out as
breast cancer and which masticized into other parts of her body over a 6
year period.  I approached my 46th birthday with a great deal of dread, with
the certain knowledge, however unreasonable, that I would die sometime
during my 46th year.  Can you imagine the party we threw when I reached
#47????

Kiri
----- Original Message -----

> She does some 1-on-1 counseling with new cancer patients through ACS.  She
had
> her first mastectomy about 12 years ago, so is an old hand.
>
> All my life, I found myself dreading my 30th birthday for no particular
reason.
> As it happened, my grandmother and father-in-law both died that week and
my
> mother was diagnosed with her first breast cancer that day.  Aha, the
light
> dawns!  It's not the birthday that was the problem, it was the upcoming
> tragedies that somehow cast a shadow forward into my young life.  Then she
had
> her second mastectomy in time for my 40th birthday.  I told her, that's
it,
> you're all out of boobage for my 50th, that's all.  She said she would
make
> every effort to comply!
>
> Selene, Caid