"There Are Tomorrows"

When I was taking part in the "Much Ado About Books" Festival in Jacksonville, Florida I had the chance to meet Geralyn Lucas. Geralyn is the author of the book WHY I WORE LIPSTICK TO MY MASECTOMY, which deals with her fight against breast cancer and how she has turned that into a positive thing. 

My wife and Geralyn had some long conversations about her illness and how she has handled it. My wife is the principal of a school and three of the mothers of her students have breast cancer. She talked with Geralyn about what she could do to be a positive force in the children's' lives and also be supportive of the parents.

While I was listening to my wife and Geralyn talk, I flashed back to my own mother's death from cancer more than forty years ago. I had hoped by the time this many years had passed that there would be a cure but it seems there are more cases of cancer than ever before. The difference is that cancer is no longer a death sentence.

When I was signing books on Saturday afternoon at the Book Fest I sat next to author Jessica Speart. Jessica writes mysteries and she and I had some great conversations while we visited with the public and hawked our books. Jessica mentioned she wanted to meet Geralyn because she too was a cancer survivor. Later that evening I managed to get the two of them together.

A short while later a woman came up to me and bought one of my books. She had me sign it for her son. She told me had been sick and she thought the book might cheer him up. After I signed it I told her I hoped her son would be alright. With tears in her eyes she told me he had cancer, then she hurriedly turned away. 

While we were in Jacksonville we were invited to a cocktail party at the home of an architect and his wife. All of the authors from the Book Festival were there plus some people in the community who had been invited. Terry and I sat down and talked with a lady who is a sports writer. Since that is our son's profession we were more than interested in her chosen career.

During this conversation the lady mentioned that at one time she was given only a few months to live. The diagnosis proved wrong and she is now healthy, but she said the prognosis of dying had given her a new lease on life. She now is fearless and has even tried sky diving (just like in the Tim McGraw song). 

It seemed that cancer victims and cancer survivors were everywhere I turned. Brave people going on with their lives while living in the shadow of this disease. I was stunned by the impact of how many are still affected and how many are making a positive result out of such a negative occurrence.

Geralyn was right to wear makeup to her mastectomy. What she was saying was that cancer was not going to erase who she was or how she faced life. If anything she was going forward into the future with herself intact.

Cancer is a hideous disease. I hate, detest, abhor it. But we are winning the war against it, and people who are cancer patients are no longer the victims they once were. When my mother was diagnosed it was a death sentence. But no longer is that necessarily the case. There is hope; there is a future; there are tomorrows.

 

 

 

 

 

©2005 Jackie K. Cooper

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