My Grandmother

My grandmother is over 70 years old. She’s fit, and healthy; she makes amazing food and hugs me every single time she sees me since I’ve moved away from home. She tells me she’s had a good, if not hard life. I think my grandmother would have to be one of the strongest people that I, personally, have had the pleasure of meeting. 

8 years ago this August, my grandmother was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer. About a year after this diagnosis, she beat the disease and went into remission. 8 years later – after chemotherapy, radiation, hair loss and surgery – she is in the clear. 

However, since then, her younger sister was diagnosed with bladder cancer, which she gracefully beat. Then came the lung cancer. Then came the brain tumour. Then came the attack. My great-aunt – my second mother, and my grandmother’s baby sister – passed away on February 9th, 2011, in a hospice, surrounded by her four dotting, loving sisters. She left behind her four sisters, an onslaught of nieces and nephews, 4 grandchildren and two children. This was strike 2 on my grandmother. 

I feel I need to explain. My grandmother is the oldest of five sisters. My aunt, Joyce, was the fourth. My family jokes that the sisters are their own clan, or secret club. Incredibly close, they depend on each other and talk nearly every day. 

Yesterday we got the news. Marlene, sister number 3, has been diagnosed with cancer. Lymph-node, lung, liver, and bone. She is tired, in pain, and demoralized – my grandmother and her three other remaining sisters are feeling roughly the same. It’s like they are connected by an invisible umbilical cord. They need each other. 

It’s estimated she has roughly 3-5 months. She has two sons, 6 grandchildren, copious amounts of nieces and nephews, and a husband also battling lung cancer. 

This is, unofficially, the third time I watch my grandmother go through cancer. I hope she can come out it without losing too much of herself. 

I think my grandmother would have to be one of the strongest people that I, personally, have had the pleasure of meeting. I just hope that her strength is not tested too much.