Sunday, April 3, 2011

There is 1 good thing abot cancer...

I;m a "look at the bright side" kind of person.l I always try and find a reason, or a positive spin on the crappy events that transpire in our lives. I got stumped when my brother was diagnosed with cancer. What the heck could be good about that? It's one of the worst propel it could happen to in my opinion. Someone who provides for his family, who is loved by everyone, someone who had already been through his own personal hell and beaten odds once before. Not that there are people who 'should' get cancer, but he was at the top if the 'should never' list (if such a thing ever existed).

He's more than 2 years post-chemo and clear as the air we breathe! Sure, the positive spin at this point could be that he is now a success story. Someone newly diagnosed with Hodgkin's can look at what worked for my brother and pray it works for them and have hope it does. I'll give that to ya but I found the true silver lining.

The one good thing to come out of his getting and kicking cancer's butt is this: Now everyone can see how much of a hero I ready knew he was!

My brother has been my hero since I was a peanut. Maybe because he was so sweet to his little sister. He didn't have to be. I was 8 years younger and I am sure he had better things to do. He would babysit me and we'd eat candy and drink soda together (things we normally weren't allowed to do). He brought me to see Gremlins in the move theater.

Let me explain that. We had a movie theater around the corner from our house. Gremlins came out in summer of 1984 which made me SIX and him almost FOURTEEN. A 14 year old boy brought his 6-year old baby sister to see a movie with a group of his friends (13 & 14 year old boys). I still cant fathom it thinking back. But the blender scene comes up. You know the one where they are in the kitchen and she sticks him in the blender and turns it on. Well, he saw what was coming and he put his hands over my eyes. I still remember it clearly and it was 27 years ago!

He was so cool in my eyes. Even when he was at his worst, I never saw the bad - he was always my hero. Time and time again, life has thrown him curve balls and time and time again, he has proven that he is the perfect person to look up to.

Lots of stuff has happened. We'll leave it at that. But here he is: a Cancer survivor. A father of 2 wonderful children married to his best friend and high school sweetheart (today is their 24th anniversary!). My brother. My hero after all these years. Most heroes have their faults and people stop looking up to them. I know I will never stop looking up to him.

I love you, Bro!

No comments: