True Love

Today, I found out that one of my Pink Sisters (fellow breast cancer warrior) is in the final stages of life on this earth. This is a beautiful, vibrant woman who should be enjoying MANY more years of laughter, fun and joy with her three beautiful daughters…instead, she is no longer able to communicate with them, and will soon be facing her Heavenly Creator.

When I read the words that she was failing, my eyes instantly filled with burning tears and I allowed myself a few minutes of totally unadulterated bawling…like a small child who’s lost their favorite friend. You must understand I have never met these beautiful women in person. We connect through an online support group…and connect we have. We stand strong when the others are failing, because we know that when it is our turn to fall, they will all be there for us. This is what friendship and support are all about. It doesn’t matter that you’ve never sat in the same room…you’ve shared the same experience, and then filled your hearts with the same love.

I have not been a part of this group for very long…during chemo and radiation, it was all that I could do to keep up with the wonderful friends I already had; and the last thing I wanted was to have to face the reality that others had to share the same fate. Going to the infusion center each and every Monday, and facing a dozen other cancer patients hooked up to infusion pumps was almost more than I could emotionally bear…I did not want or need the reality of so many other beautiful people having to experience such treatment in order to possibly gain more life. Or at least gain one more day. But the further out from treatment I have been, the more I needed to connect with others who could more intimately identify with the emotions running through me.

But despite the fact that I’m a newbie to the support group world, these women have now become an integral part of my life. We share laughter and life and love and…tears. The joys and sorrows we feel can be intimately felt and understood by each and every member of the group. And when one of us is suffering, the others are always there to lend support…a figurative hug in the middle of the cold, dark nightmare of whatever trial we are living through. And when one of us has reached the end of our battle, the others are there to reach out  and embrace us one last time…and then grieve for our family’s loss, for the group’s loss, for the world’s loss.

There is no condemnation, no judgment…just love. In its purest, most beautiful form. The kind that God placed each and every one of us on this earth to share. To live each day to be a small beacon of hope in the midst of the darkness of this world. This is what it means to be a part of my breast cancer support group…what it means to be a Pink Sister. And if there has been one beautiful thing that has come from this most devastating and disgusting disease it is this…that women from all walks of life, from all around the world, can come together and LOVE.