"Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention."
-Rachel Naomi Remen
You have been cancer free for two years now. Congratulations!
That was a terrible time. The whole time I was getting treatment, things were absolutely terrible! Just terrible!
What do you mean? In what way?
On top of everything else, we lost all of our friends! We were totally alone through all of the treatment.
Your friends abandoned you? All of them?
Every one of them! When people learned I had cancer, they stopped coming around. Later, a couple of them even told us, “I didn’t know what to say.” They really told us that!
That’s common, I think. People sometimes don’t know what to say.
Yeah, but it was terrible! There are several people we have never heard from again. We ended up with mostly new friends as a result. And that wasn’t the worst part.
What was worse?
My son told us that he couldn’t stand seeing me so sick so even he stopped coming over to visit me.
Completely?
I didn’t see him for over a year! Not at all. Just now, he’s starting to stop by again.
Wow.
You know — my wife and I — we went through this completely alone. Just the two of us. Well, we were alone except for the people who work here. They were great. Some of the people really made a difference for us. Otherwise, we were alone.
[Pause]
You people don’t realize how much impact you might have on someone while you are just doing your jobs.
[Pause]
Anyhow, things are going okay now.
Thanks for telling me this. See you in six months?
Yeah, six months. I can’t wait.
