Cancer.
A sickness I would never wish on anybody. Not even my worst enemy.
Cancer is a sensitive word to me and many other people. It's a very ugly word and it's one that I take very seriously. It's not a word to joke about or speak lightly of. It's a word that makes me cringe and I pray with everything in me that I don't get cancer someday because I have seen the pain and destruction it has caused to people that I love and honestly, I don't think I'd be strong enough to go through it.
I have never understood why it has to exist and I will never understand why it does. When you experience a loss from it, it's a pain that stays with you for the rest of your life. It leaves an empty place in your heart.
It creeps up on people and unfortunately, by the time some doctors find it, it's already too late. It's such a frightening thing to not know that it's going on and it literally comes out of nowhere. I lost my aunt, one of the best people in my life, to lung cancer. She never even smoked a day in her life but was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and the doctors thought it was pneumonia at first. Losing my aunt was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever gone through and that's why cancer really scares me. It came out of nowhere and without much of a warning besides a cough. My brother was also diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of three. Luckily my parents took him in right away and the doctors were able to help him before it even got to any of the stages. But again, it came out of nowhere.
I pray that one day there is a cure for all types of cancers and that it will become a less common sickness. If you've never had to see someone suffer through cancer then you're lucky. If you haven't had to watch your loved one lose their hair, become very thin, and see how tired the chemo makes them, then you should feel extra blessed because it's an image that doesn't leave your mind. You want to help them so bad, but you realize that there is literally nothing you can do. All you can do is believe that the doctors are doing everything that they can and pray to God that He does what He thinks is best. It's all you can do.
So cancer, you may have taken loved ones from me, and many others, in this world, but what you can't take are the memories, advice, and love that they gave us before they went home to Heaven. As for the survivors you have left here on this earth, you have only made them stronger people. As for those of us who haven't had cancer but have had to watch those we love go through it, you have made us a better and more loving support system, who don't take our loved ones for granted.
You may have left me with an empty place in my heart for the people I have lost to you, but you still lose in the end. They may not physically be here, but they're still with me every day. You lose because there are survivors in this world who can say, "I kicked cancer's ass." You lose because people like me who haven't been diagnosed with cancer are able to be there for people who have been in their time of need. You will always lose.
Cancer, despite everything that you have done to me and others that I love, I will always have the memories of those who are home in Heaven, I still have the people who survived and are still here, by my side, and I still have love in my heart and strength to share with those who have to go through this.
Don't you get it?
Cancer, you'll never win.