A good fight...

Sometimes, life hands you stuff you just don't understand. A few years ago, a friend of mine, who is only a few months younger than I am, found out that what her doctor thought was a harmless cyst on her breast was actually cancer. She put her life on hold to have a lumpectomy with chemo and radiation, and when she got the news just before her 29th birthday that her cancer was in remission, she had a huge party to celebrate. We were all there, and we had a great time, celebrating her and her new lease on life.

Then, many months later, an MRI showed that she had some spots on her spine and on her hip. She was having pain. It seemed like the cancer had returned. She continued working, and she continued fighting. We all thought it was no big deal because she made it seem like it was no big deal. She was the same as she had always been, working hard and having fun and living every day.

Then, the cancer spread to her liver. We all knew she was not okay anymore. She had to go back into the hospital. She had to try different treatments. She had to keep fighting.

The treatments didn't work. And now she is going into hospice. There is no more fight left, so she has elected to spend what time she has left at the home of her parents, entertaining all those who love her and waiting for her time to be up.

She's thirty years old. And she fought a good fight...but sometimes that's not enough.