My Support System

I stopped by the office of one of my colleagues last week to see how she was doing. Monica is a wonderful person who is married, has 3 young children and she is also taking care of her parents who live in her home. Her father is a diabetic who is receiving dialysis several times a week and whose health has deteriorated to the point where he now needs around the clock care so she has been looking for a facility for him. She is doing all of this and working a full-time job as well.

As we chatted, I mentioned that I just don’t understand how she does it all. She responded that what she has had to deal with this year is nothing compared to what I had to handle with cancer and that I have served as an inspiration to her. Very frankly, I couldn’t understand how this could be so.

I thought about what she had said and tried to give it some perspective. I finally realized that the reason that I felt that what I had experienced was not that big of a deal was because of love and support that I had received and continue to receive from my husband, Kirk. Whenever I had anything with which to deal, he was there. When surgery was scheduled, all I had to do was show up and he took care of everything from there.

It is difficult to explain how the constant support of my husband made all the difference in the world. He has always been so supportive with everything that needed to be done around the house as we both work. But now he was doing everything that you can imagine and more. Not only did I not have to lift a finger to do anything but he also went above and beyond to help me have something else on which I could focus by doing special things like getting me a gift card for shopping online. He was also the inspiration for this blog and set it up for me and still handles the site and the postings each week. I can’t even begin to list everything that he has done for me. I was always physically and mentally as comfortable as anyone could possibly be under such circumstances and could not have wanted for anything more.

My husband was and continues to be my inspiration and there will never be any words or deeds or gifts or anything that I could do or give to him that would ever express my true gratitude. To have someone in my life who is so loving and caring and giving is everything to me. He is a shining example about how we should love and cherish one another and as a result of what he has shown me, I want to find a way in which I can help and support others in their personal struggles with cancer. If I can give to others at least a portion of what he has given to me, I know that I can make a real difference in those people’s lives. There is nothing more important to any of us than the support of others and knowing that someone cares.