Her story is truly remarkable and I am privileged to know her and her sister.
Seems I have collected quite a few of these incredible friends in my life over the years and it also seems its a result of what we went through with Kali and the Massacure that has drawn them to us, enriching our lives. Another remarkable one shows her peace symbol on our home page. That will be another blog.....
My friend does not have cancer, nor does she have a child or loved one with it. Her experiences are far past what my brain can comprehend. Horrific childhood, unspeakable in fact - yet she wears a smile and her sense of humour is crazy. Her sister - the same.
My blog is about perspective. Just when a person has reached the end of their rope and feels they can endure no more, another person comes along with a story that in fact changes or alters the way they feel.
I finally learned this in the hospital with Kali- the darkest moments of my life. Through all of my personal hardships, compromised heath with myself and 3 girls - these years from 2000 and on were by far the worst. Again perspective. Seems to me when my first was fighting for her life at 28 weeks in the neonatal unit, THAT was the worst. Then child #2 with a severe head injury, numerous health complications and a tumour on the kidney - thought THAT was the worst. It's relative to what and how much we can endure at that given time.
During the Kali years, at the point when I was crumbling, I found enough strength to find another parent going through the same thing and would ask for their story. As much as it pains me to say, I found solace through another's pain. I had learned a valuable life lesson.
My 2 sister friends inspire me. They are huge supporters of the event and you could not ask for better people as they are always there in a time of need - smiles on and ready to go.
Getting back to the one sister in particular, I took a walk around the block yesterday (which was wonderfully warm and sunny) and absorbed what she was telling me. She has PTSD - something I just became all too familiar with. I imagine mine must pale in compassion to hers.
I wanted to fix her - make it all go away, buy her a car and a home and a ready made functional family. I felt helpless. Her savings have gone into flying back and forth to an underprivileged country to support needy children. Her dream (besides normalcy) is to sell hand made goods from her country of choice and return the profit back with the plan to develop the requirements for the children and the impoverished schools. Still her dreams do not involve self benefit, this is just how she is wired. My thought to that is that we need more of this mindset on this earth and less greed and self absorbency.
For her, I hope one day that she acquires some personal wishes for herself. I hope she feels deserving of blessings and accepts them with God's grace.
I am a true believer that all things happen for a reason. As much as we don't understand the reasoning from above why horrible things happen, every experience is a prompt for another door to open or close. I think these doors are opportunities with free choice. Its then up to us whether to notice and accept the opportunities.
Her experiences, although unbelievably deplorable have made her stronger, wiser and super compassionate.
I am privileged to know her, to be entrusted to the truth of her past.
To my 2 sisters out there, Thank you for befriending me. You have enriched myself, my girls, and a lot of volunteers / participants. May God bless you both with wonderful experiences and opportunities.
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