Hello My Daisy List readers POST 2018-00
It has taken me quite a while to write this Christmas Holiday greeting for a couple of reasons.
One friend lost a long fought battle with TAZ in Nov, just days before Thanksgiving. She was in her 60’s, and left behind a large family, her mother, a son, siblings, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren, all of whom will surely miss her for this Christmas and many more to come.
Another friend of mine found out just before Thanksgiving that she had Breast Cancer. For her I’m sure the hustle and bustle of music, shopping, cooking, wrapping, and everything else is a distant whirling sound in her head that she can’t comprehend. Right now, she is right in that place where the only word your brain hears is CANCER. No amount of Christmas music, shopping or presents will cheer her up as she and her family try to make decisions about various treatment options.
Because of all the negative information out there about chemo, she is contemplating not having chemo. It’s such a scary time to try and stay rational about which course of action to take, when you feel a tick-tock clock inside of you. Not like you can take a few months to deliberate which way to go. Her friends and family have just gathered around her to help her with the decision. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Everyone has a completely different opinion.
Yet another friend, a past cancer survivor, a young beautiful married mother of a pre-teen daughter has been dealing with her second round of TAZ for the last year or so. Up to a few months ago she seemed to be doing well, filling her time as an energized advocate and activist for many cancer patients.
However, she has just recently been confined to a hospital bed hooked up to a machine while they perform all sorts of tests and horrible painful new treatments. Her husband, children, and the rest of her family have no idea of what this Christmas will be like. It gives new meaning to “All I want for Christmas….!”
So based on these three friends, it took me a couple of depressing days to decide that my Daisy List Christmas message had to be about them.
I felt the need to say something about them, and ask all of my readers for prayers for all of them and their families. As a result, the only positive I could come up with, was to reinforce how important I think it is to “Live your Best Life Now!” I just can’t say it enough.
When I was first diagnosed with TAZ, I had no idea if I would see another Christmas again, but here I am, and I plan to make the most of it. I plan to enjoy as much as I can and pray for a Christmas miracle for all of my friends that are still fighting the fight.
But the biggest message I want to send, is for each and every one of you, to make sure and savor every single minute you have and to appreciate and be grateful for the Blessings of friends and family this Holiday season.
Make every effort to make it your “BEST Holiday EVER” because we just don’t know how many more we or our loved ones have.
In spite of all that, I’d like to end on a more positive note. My feisty Posse friend Janet the Warrior from my Blog Post 2018-11 is kicking it every single day. She is back in treatment but she is making the best of it. The complications are just too complex to list here, but Thank God, her prognosis is very good. But I’m here to tell you she is determined to enjoy this Holiday and many more to come with all of her family and friends, and of course Spanky. As a matter of fact, Spanky will be lucky if she doesn’t decorate him like a Christmas tree.
We all celebrate it differently. But for most of us it’s about sharing with family and friends, and even strangers. Being with them and enjoying their company. Ten or twenty years from now who knows what they’ll call it or who will be here.
So enjoy NOW!
PS – don’t forget to let Santa know what you want for Christmas!
– POST 25