Never before in my life have I seen as much snow as I did last week. It was enough to last me for a long time. I didn’t build a single snowman or participate in any snowball fights, but I did ride in the car through a winter wonderland for about 12 hours on Monday. Literally, once we got north of Atlanta, there was snow completely covering the ground (thankfully, it wasn’t on the actual interstate) all the way to Richmond! And in Richmond, there was snow EVERYWHERE. It was in the parking lots and on all of the back roads in town. I love the way that snows looks on the trees…so pretty! I will try to post some of the pictures I took at another time. Our internet here is so slow (b/c we are using the signal from the library across the street) that it takes forever to upload pictures.
Probably everyone knows why I went to Richmond last week. My cousin, Lindsey, passed away after having kidney cancer for almost 4 years. She was definitely a fighter though! There were several times that things weren’t looking good, and she always pulled through somehow. I can’t even imagine what she went though. On top of having regular chemo and dialysis treatments, she graduated in 4 1/2 years from the University of South Carolina. Although I only saw her usually once a year on our week-long Cushing family beach trips, I will never forget the times we shared. I’m really glad I made the trip to Richmond with my family. I was able to see the rest of the family and to grieve over the loss of Lindsey. It was very much worth the hassle of contacting teachers, scheduling makeup tests, and missing clinicals. There were a few things that struck me about Lindsey from the comments made at the memorial service and throughout the whole time I was there:
1. She never said “Why me?” when dealing with her cancer. She simply said, “It is what it is.” What a great attitude to have! Even though her life was ended much sooner than anyone wanted it to be, she fought hard and didn’t feel sorry for herself.
2. She obviously made a difference in a lot of people’s lives. There were over 800 people at her memorial service!
3. There were also several doctors and nurses that made a difference in Lindsey’s life. One of her doctors spoke at the memorial service, and her dialysis nurse also attended. I hope that I can do the same for my future patients one day.
4. I really like the quote on the back of the program for Lindsey’s memorial service. It was one of her favorite quotes: “Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinarily results.”
I have now lost 2 cousins under the age of 25 to cancer, one on each side of the family. I really hope that we will find the cure to cancer soon.
