19

On this day, 19 years ago, I was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer. After 7 months of treatment, it was found to have spread to my bone and lymph nodes (total of 6 sites). I used my 13th month pay at the time to buy a cemetery plot. 

What followed was another 9 months of treatment, funded by over a hundred donors who wanted to give me a fighting chance to beat the odds.

Just before my 12th year as a survivor and after almost 22 years of marriage, my beloved passed on to eternal bliss. He still saw our son graduate from college. Our daughter, though, had just entered her freshman year. 

Two years ago, at the height of the pandemic, I was diagnosed again with cancer on the remaining breast. The hospital only allowed one COVID-negative companion for each surgery patient. My daughter, by then already working after earning her bachelor's degree summa cum laude, took care of me. Five months after my surgery, she left for Spain. And I have not seen her since.

Today, as I mark my cancer-versary, I am a bullet-train ride away from her. My son and his fiancée travel with me, as well as two friends who wish to make a pilgrimage with me.

We, plus five other pilgrims, will be walking to Camino de Santiago from Sarria, full of gratitude for God's singular favors. 

I had prepared to leave this earth early on in my cancer journey, but God's mercy prevails to this day. The Good Lord wills me more opportunities to love, to serve, and to share the miracle of being in His care--in sickness/health, in sorrow/joy, in life/death...I give praise and thanks for every breath, for every step and misstep, indeed for every single day my guardian Angel wakes me... All glory to God!