Our once well tuned bodies, bodies that in their complexity once purred like Swiss watches begin to malfunction. Our joints stiffen, and eventually the circle comes to a full close as we once again find ourselves needing to be kept under the watchful eyes of caregivers, who keep us safe from the dangers that lurk outside our walls. At other times, there is an explosion that shatters our hopes and dreams and plans for our futures, for our families, and for ourselves. Like storms that erupt out of nowhere, cancer epitomizes the chaos that corrupts, consumes and destorys. Cancer is the disease of senselessness that lurks just outside of our vision, concealed beyond the horizon, beyond our backyard fences, striking down someone else in its viciousness.
Cancer is the disease that interrupts the normal workings of our meticulously timed bodies.
And we look to other caregivers, to the medical profession with fearful hope that order can be reestablished, that through the knowledge and devices that humanity has wrought we can get back on track in order to finish living our lives the way they should be lived. Diane had plans for the future. She wasn t expecting to have her vibrant and energetic life cut to a halt so abruptly. In the normal course of events she would have retired, she and Bill would have travelled, she would have enjoyed watching her grandchildren flourish and grow, giving as selflessly to them as she has to everyone else. And she would have expected that she d have to slow down as her body continued on its inevitable slide into old age.