Yup, cancer. The big C. The beast. The indiscriminate illness. One of our worst nightmares. I am talking about you little c-a-n-c-e-r.
First, I want to introduce you to my mama. She’s magnificent. Really magnificent. She celebrated her seventieth birthday in a March. In April, she rode in a Tour de France training Camp for two weeks riding sometimes 90 kms per day. She even fell off her bike three times.
Yup, that’s my mom, she’s one tough, athletic, caring and beautiful woman.
She came from a small farming town where she rode a horse to school. She is resilient.
She loved helping her dad around the farm rather than hanging out with her mom in the kitchen. She is strong.
She was a leader at school as well as an academic and basketball star. She is all around smart.
She put herself through University to become an excellent teacher and then she gave up her career when my sister and I came along. She is passionate and compassionate.
She went back to work once I hit school and she managed to do it all – work, home cooked meals, travel, organize our lives, plan fabulous parties and I could go on. She can do it all!
Cancer, I almost forgot to tell you, if my mom is feeling tired and weary from trying to cast you away. She’s got my dad at her side. Her knight. Her partner in crime. No cracks have I seen in their 42 years of marriage. He’s even put his golf clubs on the shelf, so watch out. He is a force!
Plus you’ve got to add one power into this “thing” you are trying to do in my mom’s body – God. My sister and I plus our hubbies, we know Jesus. We know his power to heal and transform lives. You bet we will have our mom and dad covered with prayer. We know the angels will be sitting by her beside. We will also be by my mom’s side to love her up and keep her going, especially with a few good books, reality tv shows and neck kisses.
And if that ain’t enough, we have got family and friends all over the world ready to kick your butt. Special niece in Spain, nephew up north, siblings to the east/south and friends in PG, Vtown, Western Canada, Australia, and 100 Mile. You don’t know who you are dealing with.
So, cancer now that you’ve met my mom, and her team brace yourself because you aren’t going to know what hit you! And we haven’t even met her medical team yet!
"Be" ENOUGH 
wow joanna you are gifted. tears in my eyes and hope in my soul.
also realized i’m not sure i know that much about my own mom… time to learn!!
I was the parent at the volleyball game Tuesday evening with the video camera and laptop computer. You and your family watched part of the game. You have three beautiful boys. You are friends with my son’s coaches as you have pictures of both of them, and I found my way here from Facebook, when Paul Mend liked one of your posts.
I have two boys, the oldest is in his third year at TWU and my youngest now it grade 12, and playing volleyball. When our oldest left for school that first year I realized how little time left we had with our youngest son, so now I do everything I can not to miss a game, much less a practice.
But this post was about cancer. My dad had cancer, I was about 10, he died when I was around 40, heart disease at that point. My mom has had cancer three times with two mastectomies. For her she thinks of when it will come again, not if… who am I to argue.
That is who I am, no one, someone just sitting on a bench near your family, but tears role down my cheeks as I think about my own family. I pray that your faith will sustain you over the next days, weeks, months. I rejoice with you in the good times and weep with you in the hard, for the hard will come… this is cancer.
May I leave you with verses that have comforted, encouraged, challenged me and my family in years past, verses I personalize to the events of the day… Habbakkuk 3:17-19
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
As my dad used to say, “Blessings on you this day.”
Ian
Thank you for sharing your story of your boys and cancer with me. I really appreciate the time you took to share and connect.
Glory to God for weaving our paths together. May God use you and your son in Mend’s and Smith’s lives.