Tonight, Christmas Eve, I flew back to Colorado to visit my family. The trip was great.. the whole day was great! I saw my French friend in the morning and finally met her cute ballerina daughter from NY, met up with my other Jewish friend and helped improve her site a little then she gave me a ride to SJC airport. on the flight I met a wonderful lady named Cindy (Cindy Loo Hoo anybody?) all was well.

I got into DIA and met with my sister and Mom who picked me up, the drive was super fast and easy and on the way my sister mentioned that my aunt has gotten ovarian cancer… She is a nurse director so she was lucky to have caught it early and being that she has great benefits she will get good care. Such an interesting thing, it was easy to acknowledge, these things happen. I half expect my grandparents on both sides of the family to begin dying and this aunt doesn’t have the best health to begin with, it’s not that I don’t care but the initial announcement seemed reasonable.

We arrived at my grandmother’s house a bit early and began chatting and helping prepare the meal. Everyone was showing up late but the aunt (who has cancer) showed up early and met with my sister and I. I had completely forgotten at this point and was just enjoying everyone’s company, I showed her a song I discovered recently by a friend of mine. The song is called “The Hospital Song” and it really caught my attention because my aunt works in a hospital and I knew she would like it. The song is also spiritual and this aunt has suffered the loss of her husband several years back and just had a generally challenging life in many ways (though she is strong and a real good person). So I showed her the song and I could tell she was moved. Even before I found out about her cancer or anything this song moved me, it’s just so beautiful and almost spiritual in it’s simplicity and analogies. Simply good.

After the song she told my sister and I “now is as good a time as any to tell you something” and she proceeded to tell us both that she has been diagnosed with cancer and will have to have her ovaries and other parts removed… potentially even going in for chemotherapy. She was being strong but I could see the tears welling up in her eyes and hear her tone wavering, see her mouth and face tensing up. Tears were filling my eyes and my jaw began sputtering, my throat felt tight and dry. I was trying to figure out what it all meant. I will be sad to see her go if indeed she passes away from this, a person cannot really be replaced, but at the same time it’s not the knowledge of her potential loss that made me cry for I had already known this. Seeing her struggle and connecting with her fears just pushed me over the edge and we all had a good cry and a great hug. I really felt lucky to know about it and to experience that “real” moment with her, good or bad, that’s what family and friends are for and it’s amazing really.

She said she wanted to download the song and keep it with her at work in the hospital to listen to and cheer up with. That made me happy. I plan on learning the song and playing it for her, playing it at her funeral when she eventually dies… cancer or not.

The other interesting part of this story is that my real life friend from high school Daryl wrote this song. I connected with him last week just thanking him for the amazing music and wonderful thoughts. It was a great conversation. Daryl is unique and special in his ability to think and act so positively and be cheerful and goofy. He was also paralyzed from the waist down in the last year or so of high school. I don’t know the details but he lost movement from the waist down and will likely spend his life in a wheelchair. He is a living example of hope and appreciation of life. He’s a religious person but more importantly in my mind he is a positive, caring and good person, a true inspiration. I told my aunt this and I think it helped her look beyond her own scary situation and see the deeper beauty of the song and of life.