Summer 2007 - Lac Simon, QC
It was June 3, 2007 and I found myself thinking that it was only one year to the day that I had discovered the lump in the first place. I could not believe how much had happened to us over the past year!Radiation was going to be finished soon. Chemo was finished. Mastectomy was done. Summer to me was sort of the light at the end of the tunnel. It was getting close to those beautiful summer sunshine days and the thought of a few months with no cancer treatments was really a welcome relief. The kids and Mike and I were going to be able to use the summer to be together and really relax, heal, enjoy our time and be grateful that things were going to get better each day.
I was more relaxed than I had been in years because I knew I could just take each and every day as it came. I was not going to have to go to work every day. I was simply starting each day with a blank slate. No plans. No expectations. Just living. Just being. Just loving every moment with my family and revelling in each and every wonderful day. What an amazing feeling to feel so free. To feel so grateful and happy to be alive. To strangely start feeling so incredibly blessed. I mean who really feels like that after such a horrible year and scary experience with cancer? But that is how I started to feel. I was having a hard time figuring it out and accepting this feeling but I knew it was real.
Summer 2007 - Kagawong, ON
Geez what was wrong with me? Then I told Mike and he was feeling the same way. Not that we would want to go through this again nor would we ever say that we are happy that cancer happened to us, but we were looking at the bright side. The silver lining. The glass half-full. The upside. There were so very many positives that came out of this negative.
I even signed up to play ball hockey with the local ladies group. I am not sure what I was thinking but perhaps I felt like I had to move and feel alive and healthy again. I had never played ball hockey before. Man it was hard! After my first shift I got on to the bench and really had no idea how I was possibly going to make it through this game. After my second shift I looked at the bright-eyed energetic girl beside me and said “how old are you?” and when she sweetly said “18” I just about smacked her! Then I just thought, okay I can do this, one shift at a time. And you know what? I did. Our team even won the whole shebang that year.
Summer 2007 - Barrie, ON
So here we were with a whole summer ahead of us to travel and visit friends and family and go to the beach and swim in the pool and soak up every day. It was time to pack up and take a long overdue road trip. Good Vibrations - Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch