Breast Cancer Awarness

This is an issue close to my heart, hence the reason I made a Twilight BCA tag. My Twilight Always list members already have this tag and know the story behind my making it. In the 1970's, my grandmother had breast cancer. At that time the only option was removal of the breast and then radition. I was around 10 or 12 when this happened and i remember going to the hospital and seeing her after her surgery. At that time i didn't know they had removed her breast, i just knew she'd been sick and had been oparated on.

A few years later, after I got my DL, my grandmother asked me to drive her to a store here in town to by a bra, this is when i realized she only had one breast. I asked her how she felt about having it removed and if it bothered her. Her answers to these questions stayed with me and it wasn't until after i grew up that i realzied just how much she imspired me.

Her answers were, "Baby it's just a breast, I didn't need it anymore it didn't define me as a person,as a woman or as a human." She was quiet for a moment and then she said, "At first I was upset about losing it but not because of what you think, but because i didn't know how the family would treat me or other people for that matter. But i decided before i left the hospital that i didn't care what other people thought of me, I was alive and if living meant living with one breast or none at all, I'd be happy because I survived to watch you grow up and to see how the world is going to change. God didn't give me anything he knew i couldn't handle."

Those words have stayed with me thorugh my on life while I've been dealing with debilitating RA. It's just something I'm havnig to deal wtth, it's not defining me or my life and i don't care what people think about the way i look becoase of the RA.

Even though we lost her in 2004, she is still a very big part of my life. So please, everyone, please get checked at least once a year. If not for yourself, do it for someone you love and who loves you.

Peace

Somber