Cancer moms

MOMMY: 

One sleepy boy on communal couch + One weak bladder during slumber + One concerned mom = One rushed dinner. I swooped up Luis and carried him back to our room for a late nap. Mémé soon followed with Julien. I didn’t get another chance to eat until after getting both kids to bed in the late evening. To be honest, it’s a welcome part of my day when I finally get a moment to myself. I wandered into the kitchen and settled on potato salad leftovers. I couldn’t find the cookies that were baked that afternoon.

If you hang around in the kitchen long enough at night, many of the other ‘cancer moms’ sneak out to the kitchen to catch up on meals, pack snacks, and tidy up. I met two families who are here with their children. One of the children I met the day before and she amazes me. She is 10 years old and has the tell-tale sign of chemo: hair loss. Look past that, and you see the most beautiful child, inside and out. Whenever I see her, she brightens my day. In the kitchen, I chatted with her Mémé.  I listen to her granddaughter's story: how her cancer started in one place and showed up in another; how they spend more time in London than they do in their hometown; how untrained the hospital staff in Windsor are at handling paediatric oncology patients. As sad as much of her story is, I am comforted that I’m not the only one going through this.

Another cancer mom came in. Her daughter is just a baby. It sounds really harsh giving such a tiny thing chemo. She can be grateful the little girl won’t remember these months. I was happy to have met her. She was full of knowledge and experiences in just two months since the diagnosis. 'A generous dose of perspective' she called it. It opened my eyes that there are so many families that touched by cancer and so many other mothers that have to hear that horrible word being spoken about their child.

I was planning to be a ‘soccer mom’ this summer. Luis played one game the weekend before he was diagnosed. Well, he didn’t really play. He was grumpy. He sat on the sidelines the first half of the game by choice. He made it onto the field a few times, but kept close to his net. He didn’t really seem interested. We knew he had a bad cough and attributed his poor attitude to that. And now here we are. I’m a ‘cancer mom’. It’s not a glamorous title, but I know I can handle it. Perhaps I’ll be soccer mom next year.

 Luis' first soccer game. He's in purple in front of the net.