Making Things Better

Strength and inspiration come in some of the most unexpected packages!

 

           It had been a long and difficult winter for Rose. The cancer had spread to her lungs and the pneumonia had prevented her from getting her regular doses of chemotherapy three times weekly. Her hair was all but gone, but her spirit was still fighting although her breath was short.

          “Some days I just don’t feel like doing anything,” she told her cousin Joe over the long distance call. “Most days, I can’t keep any food down so it’s better not to eat.” 

          “You have to eat, Rose,” chided Joe. “You need to keep up your strength for immunity, especially after the pneumonia.” Joe was very concerned about his cousin. Her spirit had always seemed dauntless as they grew up in the best and worst of times in the neighborhood. They knew each other’s secrets, went through their first loves in high school and ended up with very different lives despite it all. Still, they shared plenty of smiles as they reminisced about their lives growing up – the great Sundays of family get-togethers, all the food, the noise, Uncle Ray playing his banjo when things got quiet and just the craziness of their family’s life. 

          The nausea had its effect on Rose, but it did not always win over her spirit.  Her many stops to the cancer center won her friends with all the nurses for her cooperation and stamina. She would wear a khaki baseball cap covered with cancer ribbons – each one a different color representing a different cancer cause – pink – breast cancer; green – kidney cancer; orange – leukemia; red – AIDS/HIV; white – bone cancer; black – melanoma; yellow – childhood cancers and other shades too.   She would still drive to the grocery store, sometimes twice a day. Of course she would take her time in and out of the SUV.   As soon as she would get inside the automatic doors, she would find a scooter to take her whizzing up one aisle and down the other. Sometimes she didn’t really need anything as badly as it seemed. She just liked to get out of the house and have people greet her and talk. She was gregarious in that way. Everyone knew her at the local supermarket and the compliments on her baseball cap and her toughness made her feel that much better. 

          Just as soon as she hung up the phone with Joe, Rose decided that she needed to get something at the grocery store. She craved some cantaloupe. The moistness of the fruit helped calm her nausea, she declared. Since there was none in the house, she ambled out to her SUV and climbed aboard. All the market employees smiled to see Rose walk in again. They called her by name and always had a pleasantry or two to share on the weather or her attractive baseball cap.   They didn’t seem to mind that there were only a few sparse hairs left on her head or that her teeth had almost all fallen out. 

It was that fighting spirit that brought out the best in everyone Rose met. 

          Even when things are so extremely difficult in our lives, we can attempt to counter the difficulties in the challenge by making the little things better. This does not mean that every minute will be happy or that there will not be adversities that some days we cannot surpass. It does mean that we can address the little challenges and even if need be, force a smile, seek the moment of happiness in between the moments of pain and suffering. In so doing, we become the everyday heroes that our world so desperately needs. 

         The courage and presence of people like Rose in our lives not only helps the individual in making things better, but it brings a different perspective to all those encountered. People begin to look at life with new eyes, a new heart and a new spirit. Choosing to live with a cheerful countenance can make things better for everyone and make all the difference in one’s world.

Reviews

[Yann Eigen]

That was really hard to get through(in an emotional way). Very intense. Reminds me of those articles you used to read in school.