Thursday, November 16, 2006

staying warm...

I made it through September..
As I look back over the past year I realize that, even though the loss of my mother hurts tremendously, It is becoming easier to deal with...
I can think of mom and smile more.. We talk about her more often..

The weather here is very cold and dreary now.
This time last year, dad asked sis and I to please clean out mom's closets for him. Even though he still had her pictures everywhere, It was too painful for him to see her things every day. It was too painful for me to see her clothes too, so I stored them away.

Today I wore one of her coats.
It was wonderful.
It kept me warm in more ways than one. I hung it on the back of my office door when I got to work...
Every time I saw it, I thought of mom and smiled.
There was a penny in the pocket- which I'm sure she left there for me...
And on one of the collars was a tiny apple pin....

(written September of 2005) I have learned much in the last nine months. I have read that ovarian cancer whispers. I say it screams. It just needs someone to listen. The American Cancer Society statistics for ovarian cancer estimate that there will be 22,220 new cases and 16,210 deaths in 2005. This is a death rate FOUR TIMES that of breast cancer.Almost 70 percent of women with the common epithelial ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until the disease is advanced in stage. The 5-year survival rate for these women is only 15 to 20 percent. This is unacceptable. Women need to be made more aware of the symptoms, and doctors need to listen to their patients. Especially when the patient tells them that they fear they have ovca, as my mother did for almost a year before she was finally diagnosed. It’s so sad and senseless when a woman knows the symptoms but can’t get anyone to listen to what she is saying.

©JsDaughter