My aunt ​had​ cancer
Unexpected
It’s unexpected. It’s like breaking a bone but it is really
breaking your heart. My aunt Mindy Mitchell ​had​ breast
cancer but I wonder how did she get. Cancer is like five
w’s I learned in class last year, who, what, when, where,
and how. I thought I was going to die but in reality I
thought she was going to die. There was times tears filled
my eyes and many days when the tears mazed down my
cheeks like the hoover dam shattered.
My aunt got diagnosed with triple negative breast
cancer. I didn’t know there was more than one breast
cancer but there is and she got the one where there is a
one percent chance you could get it. My aunt would have
seven rounds of chemotherapy, followed by a double
mastectomy, after that twenty-five rounds of radiation. I
heard radiation tears your skin up like fire on your chest. I
knew it would be a journey, a battle of war, most of all a
walk on faiths path.
​The
war begins
The first day of my Aunt’s chemo she was tired, it
seemed like she acted like a newborn baby, tired and
drowning in blankets. If we asked her how she felt she
would say,
“I just got hit by a truck.”
The next week after her chemo she would be feeling
great, better than ever, then she gets hit by the truck
again. Every third Thursday our whole family dreaded but
the thing that mocked me every time until it happened, the
big question, “Is when was her hair going to fall out?” It
gave me the chills to think about when it was going to fall
out and what it was going to look like. I thought it’s gross
to see hair falling out in piles. One by one, on pillows or
even at the dinner table! Gross!! Mindy finally decided that
she wanted to shave her head but she wasn’t going to do
it the easy way, she wanted all of my family to shave her
hair together. When it appeared that it was my turn to
shave her hair, I just went at it. When I shaved her head, I
saw the clumps falling down, and I felt that the war had
started to prepare, loading bullets and praying to God that
you will see your family again. I looked over I see my mom
crying and I knew the first bullet was armed.
The first stepping stone
​ Finally, it had arrived the first stepping stone. Today
was a big day for my family, it was the last day of chemo.
It kinda felt like cancer was over for my aunt but it was just
the beginning. Through my long day at school I thought
about my aunt. I felt happy and scared. After her last
chemo it was her double mastectomy which was the scary
thing. Her life would change not having any breast. Would
she feel embarrassed as a thirty year old?
Radiation seemed scary also, a big machine trying to
heel you, but really carving a picture of a burnt chest onto
her body. It truly did scare me to know all of this but I
trusted in God like always and most of all I prayed.
The magic touch
So far through this journey my aunt had touched
many lives including doctors and people who had or have
cancer. Today was the surgery, during my day I prayed
but finally the six hour surgery was over and I was aloud to
go to the hospital. I was very nervous to see her because I
didn’t want to see my aunt in pain. I went in the room and
she was sleeping but she looked really sick and looked
like she was hurting. She needed to go to the bathroom,
just then I realized she was really hurt when she was
trying to walk and then stumbled, I mean like she really did
get hit by a truck.
A couple days after surgery she was watching my
softball games, walking, and really being up and awake.
Then, finally radiation started, she and my grandma went
every single day when I was at school. Radiation actually
was like a roller coaster, it went by crazy fast. It burnt the
heck out her skin, green ooze, and scabs that are
incomparable to monkey bar fallings, but all of these
things didn’t even bug her. She was in pain and she would
be playing outside, riding bikes, or even playing volleyball.
She touched many lives doing these things and even
touched mine.
The light now shines
It was done, everything was over! This long, hard
journey was over. So my aunt took a picture of herself and
posted it on facebook. She had no shirt on, she didn’t
have any breast. In her defense she could do that
because men don’t have breast, they post pictures all over
with their shirts off. The picture showed her ironed burnt
chest, her chemo straggling hair, and the double
mastectomy, breastless body. Only one person flagged it
for nudity but others liked it, until their fingers fell off.
It went viral, thousands liked it in one day, even
channel 9 news came to my house to interview this
inspirational thirty year old. She wanted to make a
blog named ​Stripes of a warrior, ​ where she would
take other people's cancer stories and make them
highlighted for a whole week honoring only that
person.
I think why she had cancer is obvious. God
wanted to use her light and her energy to shine upon
others in their journey and for her to show God's love
towards thousands of people. The meaning of cancer
is not the meaning that you look up on the internet. It
is what you think it is, a icky thing that seems scary
but during the journey realize that it is just a blessing
you have to uncover.