Our Story

Cancer and an Airplane


There were dark days in her young life. Times she remembers, that she'd rather forget. Things she saw, things she heard, things that happened that shouldn't have.....she's worked through them all and only through the power of God has she been able to be victorious. Maybe someday...when the time is right...she'll be able to take you back to that time, but not today.....

Cancer.

At seven years old, she didn't understand what that meant. She only knew that Maw had it in her mouth and it was a very bad thing.

She was playing tea party with her dolls. Mommaw had bought her a table and chairs for her bedroom. The table was round, but otherwise, it looked just like the grown up table in the kitchen, and she loved playing mommy, working in the kitchen and fixing yummy food. While she served pretend tea and cookies to her dolls, she couldn't help but overhear the muffled sound of Mommy and Daddy's voices from their bedroom. Mommy and Daddy hardly ever went in their room to talk, so this really made her tummy feel funny on the inside. She heard Mommy and Daddy talking. She heard Mommy crying and Daddy getting angry. Daddy could get really angry sometimes, but this time he sounded a different angry. He sounded like he was hurt, but angry.

It wasn't long and their door opened. Mommy wasn't crying anymore, but her eyes were really red and her voice sounded funny. Daddy wouldn't look her way. He just went in the living room and turned the tv on.

Mommy sat on the edge of the little girl's bed and patted the spot beside her. She ran to sit by Mommy because she could tell this would be a "big girl" talk and Mommy didn't like her to "lolly gag".

"I don't want you to be scared, but Maw has cancer. Do you know what that is?"

"No...but I bet it's bad."

"It can be bad yes. Daddy's mommy is very sick. She might die if she doesn't get better."

Die?? Maw?? Strong, big Maw who could outwork any man around?? Maw who kept a switch hanging over her front door to whip the daylights out of any kid who wasn't minding her? No...not Maw....not her Maw.

"Can't the Doctor fix her?"

"Maw's doctor can't fix her but he wants her to go see a doctor very far away from her house who maybe can."

Far away from Maw's house!! Where could that be? It took them, like, forever to drive to Maw's house now!!

"Will I ever see Maw again?"

"Well, you and me are going to get on an airplane and fly to a place called Maryland. When we get there, we are going to stay at a place kind of like our apartment and we are going to visit Maw while she's trying to get better. Okay?"

An airplane?? She had to go in the sky to see Maw?? Maryland was that far away??

Even though she told her mommy that she would go, she was very afraid. She'd never been in an airplane before and she didn't like the idea of it now.

Daddy wasn't going to be going with them because he had to work. This made her even more afraid.

Just a few days later Daddy drove them to the airport. This place was huge!! SO many people going every which direction!! She and Mommy gave Daddy a kiss and a hug and he was gone. He disappeared so fast!!

She looked at Mommy and she could tell that Mommy was very afraid. That made her even more scared. She had seen Mommy sad and she had seen Mommy angry, but she couldn't remember if she'd ever seen her scared.

Somebody said something over the speaker, Mommy grabbed her hand and they took off running...and they were running fast!!!

They made it to this lady with a friendly smile who took their ticket and they boarded the plane.

Her little heart was beating so fast. She was sure it was going to pop right out of her chest!!

They found their seat and Mommy let her sit by the window. It was a tiny window, but she could see outside and that was really cool!!

They buckled their seat belts and in just a few minutes, the pilot came on the speaker and told them his name and said something about a great flight.

She turned to look at Mommy and then it moved!! Whipping around to look out her window she saw everything outside start to go by. Faster and faster until she couldn't even make out what anything was!! Her heart had calmed down, but now was beating as fast as the plane was moving!

All of a sudden she felt like someone was pushing her back in her seat and they left the ground. The little girl didn't know whether to cry or to laugh. Not long after, she felt her body returning to normal and the stewardess asked them if they'd like something to drink. "Are you kidding?!", the little girl thought, "I just might throw up if I try to drink something!"

After a while she settled down though and she actually began to enjoy the plane ride. She loved the different colors of the clouds. She saw blue clouds and white ones. Even red and orange clouds. She'd have to remember that when she colored pictures of clouds. She wondered if Scott had ever been in a cloud? Maybe she would ask him...

It wasn't too much longer and the pilot came on the speaker again. He told everybody that they had to buckle their seatbelts and put everything away. As she looked out the window again she could begin to make out the ground below and then the houses and before she knew it..... A hard bump!! She felt like she'd been slammed into the ground!! Mommy grabbed her arm and then she heard something crash!! Oh was she scared!! Mommy was holding her tightly and she could hear Mommy's heart beating! This had to be bad! She knew this airplane thing was a bad idea! But..slowly the plane came to a stop and the stewardess apologized for the plate breaking and scaring everybody.

She was glad she was in Maryland, but she hoped they could figure out another way to get home.

Once they got their bags and went outside, Mommy soon flagged down a taxi and they were off to their room apartment.

Mommy knocked on the door of the apartment and a lady answered the door. She took one look at the little girl and made an awful face.

"You have a child with you?", she asked Mommy.

"Yes. I had no choice but to bring her. She's a very good girl and you won't hear a peep out of her, I promise."

"I'd better not or you'll be finding another place to stay."

Humph. Who did this lady think she was anyway? The little girl knew right away that she was not going to like being in this room apartment.

Once they got in their room and unpacked, Mommy found the address to Maw's doctor. Maw had gotten here a few weeks before and Mommy said they had to operate on Maw. She told the little girl that Maw would look different but it was still Maw under those big bandaids.

Downstairs they went, out the door and began the walk to the hospital. Blocks and blocks and blocks they walked. The little girl tried hard not to whine, but she was getting tired.

"Mommy, why didn't we just call a taxi?"

"Because. We don't have a lot of money and we're going to be here two weeks. Just be a big girl. We're almost there."

A few more blocks found them standing in front of the biggest building she'd ever seen. This place was bigger than her apartment back home. It was even bigger than her school!!!

Even though Mommy told her that Maw was going to look different, she wasn't prepared for what she saw when she entered Maw's room......

I...Just Want to Celebrate!!!!!

Something great is happening next Tuesday!! Something so great, that I want to share it with everybody! I want everybody to help me celebrate next Tuesday (even though I will be out of pocket)! Want to know what is so great about next Tuesday?? Okay..here it is..

It is my 25th wedding anniversary!!!

That's right. Me and the love of my life will be celebrating 25 years of marital bliss together..next Tuesday..the 16th.

Wow!! 25 years! It truly seems like just a few days ago I was a giggly, silly 18 year old, just enjoying dating and working and learning (?) to be an adult. I was footloose and fancy free and enjoying it. Then one night at work (I worked on an assembly line at a furniture plant) I'm just doing my job, laughing with my fellow co-workers and then out of the corner of my eye..I see him..a new guy. Now, being 18 years old, I noticed all the new guys, but there was something different about this one. Hmmmm.....might have to check him out during break.

Sure enough when break time came, I went upstairs to get my nightly fix of cheese crackers and Coke. I went to sit down and who should be sitting at my break table?? You betcha!..this new guy. (See, I didn't realize it, but when he saw me, he decided he needed to check me out at break too!)

We begin with the small talk. You know that flirty, giggly stuff that our teenagers now are doing that causes us to roll our eyes....We exchange names and continue talking. All of a sudden he asks me a question:

"If I were to ask you to go out with me, would you go?"

Now, inside myself I'm snickering because this dude doesn't know me very well....at all honestly...and I'm fixing to take a jab at this new guy....

"Depends." says me.

"On what?"

Here we go....."On whether you ask me or not!"

I mean, hey, I had a date for Friday night and if this guy couldn't play along, I had a backup..right??

He sits there for a minute, processing what I just said and I'm sure contemplating in his mind if he even wants to give a smart-aleck the time of day, but he follows up with..

"Will you go out with me Friday night?"

Now, remember I said I already had a date for Friday night, but this guy really intrigued me. He was willing to play along with my smart-aleck attitude. Couldn't be all bad, right? So I said sure. Friday night sounded good. (We were off on Friday nights)

Now, I didn't meet my Savior until I was 27 so don't throw me to the lions just yet. I must confess that I didn't cancel my plans with date #1. I mean, what if this dude didn't show up? I had no intentions of sitting at home on Friday night! So we made plans for him to pick me up at 6. If he didn't show, date #1 would be there at 7. No harm right?? By the way... sorry, date #1.

But, lo and behold, he pulled up in my driveway and off we went with my mom fussing in the background about how she was going to have to explain things to date #1.

We had a great time! Went out to eat at KFC, which still happens to be one of our favorite places to eat! The conversation was great and he was SO cute!!

On our way home I made it very clear that this was not going to be a serious relationship. (go ahead and snicker!) I was having too much fun as a single gal and I just wasn't interested in anything serious. Kapiche???

4½ months later, on December 16, 1983, I married my best friend. The love of my life. My safe place. My strength.

Over our 25 years we've had our share of ups and downs, good and bad. We've laughed and cried, been on the mountain and in the lowest valley, but through it all, we've come through it together. Never quitting at the same time. One was always ready for the fight, which would encourage the other to get back up and keep striving for the goal.

I want to share little snippets of our 25 years in the week to come. Maybe it will encourage you, make you laugh or give you hope. For me though, it will be fun just to spend some time remembering.

Blessings....

My Other Blog

Just to let you know...

I have another blog that I'm working on as well as One Single Minute.

In just 3½ short weeks, Philip and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. I've always wanted to write our life-story down. My life before I met him, his before he met me and what it's been like since we've met.

I only post on this blog once or twice a week, because I want to take my time and not leave anything out.

You'll notice most of the postings will be from my point of view because Philip just doesn't remember a lot of his childhood, but I will write about as much as he can remember.

I hope you find it interesting and I hope that as I write, people can identify with the feelings of these two people and maybe, just maybe, make a difference in someone's life.

You can find my other blog at

www.togetherwetravel-youandi.blogspot.com

Blessings.....