I just got back from Seattle, where we had our last board meeting of the 2009 year for the non-profit I am on the board of. It is very emotional, because the reason I am involved with Childhood Cancer Guides is that I have a child who had and survived childhood cancer. It would of course be worse if I had a child who had not survived, but that is hard to imagine. So it is a labor of relief rather than a labor of love. Relief that I had them when I was going through my son's treatment, that there were people who had managed chemotherapy for over a year and come out of it with not just their sanity but also good humor. The stories I gathered nine years ago were full of cold hard realities, but also hopes, solutions for the inevitable bumps in the road, and dreams for a future. They taught me how to negotiate the path I was dealt rather than the path I would choose. In other words, they did not offer false hope, but real hope. Obtainable hope. It might be easier to leave the experience behind, but I can't. One of the reasons to continue with it is to try to contribute, to offer someone else a life line. That's what these books were for me, and long may they live.
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