I was sixteen years old when we found out that my mother had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I am an only child and to hear this about my best friend, my mom, was devastating. Plus, to look at her she looked so normal and healthy, it was hard to imagine that she could have a disease that would eventually take her life. My mom lived for almost seventeen years with the disease, through all her treatments she taught me how to find inner strength and that life was precious to enjoy it.
As a junior in high school, my mom went in for some exploratory surgery because of a small knot on her leg when the doctors found cancer. I remember going to get a drink in the cafeteria and coming back with the doctor and my dad talking inside a closed room with a small window. Through the window, I could tell by the look on my dad's face that it was not the outcome we had expected.
Later in recovery, the doctor told my mom what he had found and they would meet in his office later in the week to discuss the treatment possibilities. I was with her when she was told of the cancer and the one thing I remember most is that she kept a smile on her face and said "I can fight this".
Fighting is exactly what she did, she continued to work until retirement and for the most part tried to keep life as normal as possible for me and my dad. Sometimes, it was very strange to think of her being sick, because she knew how to hide it so well. Every now and then, I could get a peak of her being tired or just not being able to keep up the...