My sister Judith was diagnosed with Stage IV Melanoma in January 2002. She was on inteferon for one year and was clean of the cancer for 5 years. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was a true blessing! We thought she was clean forever, ha, not that dang melanoma – the devil, I call it.
My husband Roger and I came from Georgia in 2006 to spend Christmas with Judith, my other sister Jeri, and our mom. It just so happened she had her 6 month check-up around that same time. As we sat in the waiting room at the oncologists office, the 3 girls and my husband were all laughting and having a good time. We couldn’t figure out why it was taking so long to see the doctor. Well, we knew why as soon as we saw the look on the doctor’s face. The cancer was everywhere, lungs, pancreas, kineys, liver, brain! You can imagine all of our great moods turned into doom!
Anyway, off to MD Anderson we went. My beautiful sister endured the strongest chemo and radiation with a great attitude, not once did she cry like the rest of us did daily! She was such a CHAMPION. The chemo and radiation lasted for about 8 months, then her tiny body (at this point she went from 160 to 105 pounds) just couldn’t take any more.
We lost her on St. Patty’s Day 2007. Judith and I talked on the phone EVERY single day while she was at MD Anderson and back home again, every single day. I miss that the most, our conversations. I love you Judith!
Janice, sister