This is my box of mail. All the sweet notes and cards that people sent before, during and after my treatment. I don’t know our mail carrier, but I have to wonder what he thought was going on at our house. Surely he noticed– almost every day there was something personal for me in the mail. There were so many notes of encouragement and promises of prayer. Some short and sweet, some a little longer. I wanted to save every one, to remember how many people care about me! I mentioned before the weekly prayer cards from Aunt Alice’s church, I still get one of those every week! Then there was the weekly card from Dr. Ruth– not the Dr. Ruth– but a doctor whose name is Ruth, a friend of Clay’s parents. She faithfully prayed for me and I found a card with a quick note of encouragement at the beginning of every week. Then there were the cards from my college friend, Sara. Every chemo week, she’d send me a card. In college, we used to spend far too much time in Hallmark looking at cards. She managed to find some great cards to send me, and I know that was hard, I tried to send a card to a friend at one point and found the selection has really gone downhill since my college days. Sure, she found great cards, but the best thing about them? They were totally her, she managed to squeeze something onto every white space available on the card, telling me stories about what was going on in her life. She almost never even mentioned cancer, she was just her usual chatty self. Those were fun cards, I looked forward to them after every treatment! I don’t get nearly as much mail these days, which I guess is good. But I do miss all those friendly notes in the mail!
This post is part of a series of what I’ll miss from my time as a cancer patient. I know cancer is a serious thing, not everyone tolerates treatment well, and not everyone recovers. I don’t mean to offend by making light of a serious subject. These posts are just a glimpse of my efforts to make the best of my situation—to find the silver linings wherever I can.
Run Lipstick Chemo 