Worth celebrating

Gentle friends, tonight my parents and I are going out to celebrate a very special occasion. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's a milestone that comes along only once in life and should be marked with joy and gratitude.

What's the big event, you ask?

It's not what you're expecting--it's not my purchase and impending move to my very own home with its ridiculously huge yard (last weekend I finally was able to say that I was out standing in MY field--that joke is so lame, it always cracks me up). It's not an engagement, or a birth, or some stroke of financial good fortune.

No, we are celebrating the five-year (give or take a few days--I don't have the date marked) anniversary of my mother's having kicked cancer's ass. Five years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery to remove it. In the following months, she had chemotherapy to ensure that there would be no metastasis from trace amounts of cancer cells found in a couple of lymph nodes.

Five years holds more significance than mathematical neatness. After five years of being free from breast cancer, one's likelihood of having a recurrence drops dramatically. So the monster that's been trailing you, always a few steps behind but not so far that you can't hear it grunting, finally gives up and sits down in the middle of the road. You keep running, and the last time you look over your shoulder, it disappears over the horizon. You don't wave goodbye.

My mother's resilience has been an inspiration the past few years. She never looked back, and though she certainly worried about a recurrence, she put all the pain and trauma of surgery and chemo behind her quickly. As horrible as the whole experience was, I am blessed to have lived through the happy outcome because it gave me the chance to appreciate my mother while I still have her here. Viva Mom!