Raw & Real, Authentic Life

Life happens so quickly, without warning. It can be a good and a bad thing, although God always has a plan, even when we can't see the outcome.

Less than a month after I got back this summer from my study abroad program, my family found out that my dad had cancer. But not just any cancer, an extremely rare and aggressive thyroid cancer. It literally just came up over the summer and progressed extremely quickly. There are only around 600 cases in the U.S. a year and there is no treatment for it. We were told he had anywhere from three weeks to three months to live.

For the past two and a half month's we literally, just watched him waste away. The cancer took over his thyroid and then his lungs. Around the middle of October he could not stand or walk on his own. On 29th my mom called in the on-call hospice nurse and she declared him in crisis. Within a few hours, he was moved to the hospice home and given medicine to help ease the pain. He passed away peacefully early Sunday morning.

The pain it put my family through was more than just losing a member, it was watching him and everyone around suffer slowly through it. I am extremely grateful for all of the family, friends and even strangers from church, school and customers from Dad's store who showed so much support and continues to do so, through prayers and meals they gave us throughout the months.

About a year ago someone told me that God wastes no pain and I truly believe that. People suffer, that is just a part of life, but pain does not make you stronger. It is what we do during and after that makes us stronger. It's how we keep going, instead of giving up. He gives us only as much as we can handle.




I think the hardest part is the fact that life keeps going. Ever since we found out about it in August, it has been non-stop coming and going. Mom was hoping for just one day of quiet, but last Sunday, people just kept coming over to give their sympathies (which we appreciate), but it also meant that mom hasn't had a day to just relax for months. Because it was then just full force in the funeral planning.

This past week has been a whirlwind of everything and it's just plain exhausting. Thinking back to the funeral yesterday, it feels like an out-of-body experience, I was there and remember it, but it kind of feels like a dream, like did that really just happen?

In a weird way it did show who the true friends are. The funeral had over ... people attend and over 100 people attended the rosary and visitation the night before. My mom is surrounded by loving people. And my siblings all have several amazing friends, who drove hours from college or kidnapped them for coffee.

But life goes on. It's what you do with your precious time on earth that counts.

XOXO,
Suzanne Maire