"I can't tell my child to reach for the sun.
All I can do is reach for it, myself.”
This Christmas season, my hatchling went through an emotional growth period of about 10 years. Today in our small city, 2 days after Christmas, a funeral will be held for a 15 year old girl - a victim of cancer.She went to the other high school in town, not my daughter's, but her battle with cancer throughout the past 7 months united the teens of our small city in a way that no other experience could. Through purple ribbons, fundraisers and social networking, kids have joined together in a common battle of hope and belief that their constant prayers and cheers for this young girl's recovery would no doubt be answered. But instead the cruel and relentless cancer won in the end. It was devastating.
My hatchling found out at school on Friday (the day before Xmas Eve)... literally minutes before she went on stage to sing and play guitar for the school's Christmas talent show. I am so proud of her for her ability to "keep it together" and still go on stage with her sweet sweet singing voice and her acoustic guitar, playing for an auditorium filled with a hushed and stunned crowd of her peers.
Cancer is no stranger to many, many kids my daughter's age. Almost everyone has a relative who has been taken by this horrible disease. But when cancer held it's grip on someone their own age, someone who played along side them on the soccer fields and the volleyball courts, someone who won the same academic excellence award as my own daughter; someone who just one year ago was healthy and happy and celebrating Christmas with her family, it became a horrible and cruel thing for the teens in our town to have to process through the Christmas holidays. The girl isn't sick any more; isn't going through chemo any more; isn't receiving "Get well-you can beat this" messages on her facebook wall anymore. The girl is dead.
So this Christmas season, I am doing what I can to help my hatchling process this awful truth. Being the empathetic teen that she is, my daughter is grief-stricken for this girl's family. It's horrible enough when cancer takes a grandparent or a parent too soon, but someones child? It's just too cruel and unfair to sort out.
So this Christmas our own family tried a little harder, hugged a little tighter, stayed together a little longer, and loved a little deeper. My one brother made a point to visit from Toronto, spoiling my hatchling, as always, with love and attention and pressies.
And the absolute best part for me was seeing my hatchling and my other brother singing and playing guitar together - "jamming together", and him teaching her to sing "the blues". A family tradition that goes back to my own childhood when my Dad (who is also gone from cancer), used to sing and play the guitar every Christmas. He'd have been so proud to see my daughter and my bro celebrating Christmas the way he did. It was like a healing balm applied directly to my hatchling's heart.
To echo my hatching's sentiment and the words posted on her fb wall this Christmas....
"I have the BEST FAMILY".
peace & love
9 comments:
such moving post. it breaks my heart for people at such young age having to deal with mortality is just not right. a thousand blessings to you and your girl. stay strong.
Sitting at my desk in tears
oh my heart goes out to this young girl's family & to your daughter & her friends. and thanks for dropping by my blog & leaving such a beautiful comment :)
Bless you and your daughter..your doing a good job.
Coffee is on.
Blessings to you and your daughter. I had a friend die when we were about 15 and it impacted the whole community very deeply. It sounds like she is an amazing person, she will get through this with grace. How lucky to have you as her mama. xxx.
ahhh. that is so difficult. I remember losing a classmate in October of my tenth grade year- i saw her body outline on the grass. It was a very important time in my growth- she's lucky to have such a supportive and loving mom :)
such a sad, sad thing...
I'm so sorry to hear of such a young girl's passing. It must have been so devastating for the family and your community too.
My sister is being treated for breast cancer. She's had about 5 chemo infusions out of maybe 16. She'll still need surgery and maybe radiation and yearly monitoring. Both parents died from cancer so it's hard to have it hit the family again. Enough already! Such a terrible disease that leaves no one untouched. So sad.
Horribly sad. Holidays. Cancer. Death. I'm sorry your daughter had to experience this. My heart goes out to all those grieving.
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