Sisters By Heart

It was 1989 when I first heard the words Hodgkins Disease.

"What is that?"

CANCER...!!!

It's Cancer?

The Big C word?

How can an 18 year old girl who is just beginning college have cancer?

It started with night sweats and a small lump in her neck.

The doctor's suspected right away it might be cancer.

A biopsy confirmed it.

Before the days of internet, you had to look things up at the library.

I think that probably protected us from all the information we really shouldn't have.

She had her spleen removed, a somewhat radical approach to hodgkins disease but one that ultimately saved her life.

She had radiation, she was sick, some of her hair fell out.

She kept going to college though.

And she only lost one semester.

She wasnt my sister by blood but instead by marriage.

My sister in law.

A girl I had known since she was 12.

She got better.

She graduated college.

She got married.

And yet somehow her life took a horrible turn later on, and it had nothing to do with the cancer.

For more information on Hodgkins Disease please connect to the link above.