perspective

Last night, while watching the Biggest Loser & enjoying a glass of yummy Pinot Noir and a Dove Dark Chocolate (yes, it is a MUST to eat dark chocolate while watching the Biggest Loser… - sometimes I just can't FATHOM how those people have gotten themselves into such incredibly bad shape)…

Anyway, in typical ADD style I was scanning Facebook updates on my phone. I noticed my sister's profile picture was changed. This time however the picture while familiar, wasn't her… It was another woman holding her son…

For the past month or so I've seen several posts and pictures with thoughts, prayers and an outpouring amount of support for a kid named Brandon. I remember reading a while back that a young woman that went to my high school has a little boy with cancer.. A single mom raising her baby boy dying of cancer. I gazed around at some pictures a few weeks ago (the mom and Brandon's facebook pages are not private), and found myself in tears. Gut wrenching pictures of a poor boy suffering as a brain tumor is literally growing out of his head.

Last night I read the status from the mom and found a link to a fund raising page that tells the story. Basically he was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 3 with a 35% chance of beating it. He fought & won only to have the cancer return at age 7. At this time they doubled the treatment (chemo, radiation) and once again this tough little boy beat cancer.

Can you remember what you life was like between ages 3-11?

When I was looking at the pictures I figured that his cancer came back a while ago, but last night my sister told me that at Thanksgiving his mom took him to the Doctor for a "sinus infection" only to find out the cancer had returned and was growing at an exponential rate. The worst part, there was absolutely nothing to be done for the poor little boy. For the past 7 weeks the cancer has taken over and this brave little boy just has to endure it. His eye was sewed shut, and the tumor is rearranging his face as the (now 11) little boy stays brave for his mom, rarely complaining.

I can't imagine the strength that either of these two people have. The courage to just wait, when there is nothing to be done but increase the morphine drip to mask the pain…

Life just sometimes isn't fair, but hearing stories like this makes you stop and think for a moment that all those little things we think are just too much… Well, they are really just nothing in comparison. As horrible as it is to hear stories like this, it's reality and sure does make you think once or twice about stuff.

Puts it all into perspective.

I do not know this family personally, the mom she went to high school with my sister and & I may have played volleyball with or against her at sometime, my memory sure seems to have slipped, but does it really matter if you know the person or not when you hear a story like this? With that said, I'd love to ask for a little help for Brandon - here is his donation page.