My dear friend was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer ten months ago. No risk factors. No family history. Just a one in a million freak chance. She gave herself some time to feel sad and frightened and sorry for herself and then she snapped back to life with more humor than you can possibly fathom. Lots of butt jokes. Lots of laughing about enemas. Lots of hilarious chemo-related vomiting stories. She was the one cheering up the rest of us as we had trouble facing the day and fretted about our own mortality. She gave us permission to laugh at cancer, to make fun of the scariest thing that will ever happen to her. And now, ten months later, she is healed and so are we.
In her honor, some chemo-themed greeting cards I made for her:
