The Beginning Continued

The next call was to my children. I am very lucky that my daughters have also become friends as they've blossomed into adults. Carol, the oldest and now living in Chicago, has always been pragmatic, ready to tackle any challenge put in her path. Rachel, the youngest who lives an hour away, has always been the comical child. The one that couldn't sit at the dinner table without doing somersaults on her chair, hanging with her head down, just to get a rise out of us. She is also very sensitive, a little more anxious than Carol, and always seeking answers, even if they don't exist. Both girls (aren't they always going to be my little girls?) are smart and beautiful (doesn't every parent say that too?), but most of all they are caring and loving, and as a family, we have always been very close. That's why I knew these calls were going to be the worst.

I had told the girls about the need for a biopsy and the facts that 80% of the time, biopsies are negative. That didn't quell their fears. They had friends who had lost their mothers to breast cancer, had experienced my mom dying from breast cancer, and they were frightened! Carol called me early the day after the biopsy to find out if the results were back. I promised I would call as soon as I had heard. So, now I had to call her and frankly, I was scared to death. She was the easy call, because I knew she would take the information, synthesize it quickly, and ever the planner, would ask for the next steps. No doubt, she was shaken to the core. I could hear the trembling in her voice, and, as a mother, I could never stand my children to be sad. After all, aren't we only as happy as our saddest child? Here I was struggling with my emotions, as well as my family.

Carol had just moved back to Chicago a few weeks before to return to the University of Chicago for her MBA. She was so excited, and I didn't want to put a damper on this very exciting time in her life. She felt torn, and asked if she should come home. I told her she was being ridiculous, but it was a sweet gesture, and I was touched. I knew if I said yes, she would have been on the next plane.

With a promise that I would call her back later, I called Rachel. Rachel had just graduated from Cornell University with her Masters in Engineering (I'm such a proud mama), and had been working at her first "real" job for only three weeks. She had recently moved to Northern Virginia, and was having a blast with her friends, her job, her apartment and her social life. It doesn't get better than that! And here comes Mom, to put a big hole in the happy balloon. As expected, Rachel was full of questions and only wanted to hear positive information. more later....