Appreciation

(This is a little old, Ramah has now gone on to be the Lord. I wanted to post this and get this out to the world on how I felt)

Everyday I am getting a new appreciation for life. I’ve seen people come and seen people go, mainly because of health reasons. For the last 3 months I have watched my grandmother go through her battle with stage 2 breast cancer. This isn’t the 1st time this has hit my family; mom had it twice with stage 2 and stage 3 and she is still here today. Mom is a fighter and true woman of faith. But something that has really bothered me about cancer is that a very close friend of mine has stage 4 cancer. She was diagnosed at the same time as grandma was so I have been going on a parallel path with their family and my own. Grandma has been winning her battle, a tough one, but she is winning. My friend Ramah has not. Ramah has had a lump the size of a baseball for the last 7 years and refused to go to the doctor. I have been in contact with her husband as much as I can and visiting them and their kids who are taking it very hard. Ramah does not have medical care because she has been in fear of her immigration status. She has slowly become weaker and the cancer has seemingly moved into her bones. She has been home for the last 3 weeks under hospice care and they have given up hope. She is too weak to talk and it seems that the end is near.

The point of writing this is not to scare anyone but to really encourage. Cancer is something that can be beat with early detection. Studies have also been proven that cancer is a genetic disease which puts me at my kids at high risk. Cancer is now officially confirmed in every generation of my family on both sides. This is really pushing me to live a healthier life and to actually go to the doctor, no matter how much the cost. After seeing Ramah, all I could do is call the people that I care about and tell them I love them. Don’t wait until you get on your death bed 7 years after the fact. We have to live for the moment now that God has given us. If you have aches, pains or lumps that you just can’t get rid of, go to the doctor and seek help. If you are medication, keep taking them consistently.