I just heard back from my parents about my best friends in Saskatoon. Darryl (I used to date him) has been diagnosed with bone cancer of the spine. He has been suffering with back ache since mid May after a diagnosis of a cancer growth on his eyelid. They were waiting to hear back from a specialist in Calgary that deals with cancer of the eye. When his family doctor sent him for xrays of his back, both the doctor and the radiologist missed the cancer and said his back problems were from pulled muscle. But they gave him heavy medication. After a couple more weeks of suffering; a chiropractor then said he couldn't help him and to seek another opinion, his wife finally took him to the hospital emergency room. When they ran another xray the doctor asked how could these doctors of missed a totally disintegrated 11th disc and pockets of cancer down his back. Move ahead 4 days and a MRI revealed that he was totally covered in cancer. Now 2 discs are rubbing bone on bone and his pain has brought him to morphine every 4 hours with another pain killer in between. So I drove out to Sasktoon for a quick 24hr trip to see him & my best friend, Penny. They are devastated as he is only 53 and his life was just ahead of him. Then after 1 more week in the hops ital, there youngest married daughter drops her 1 year old off at the house for her sister (who is visiting) to babysit and goes out with her husband. Her husband drives recklessly and crashes their vehicle into a power pole on the wives side the vehicle. So at 9:30 pm Sat evening, Penny gets a call from the police to say that her daughter was in a serious crash and needs to come to the hospital. Upon arriving they find her daughter with a broken collarbone; smashed pelvis, internal bleeding and most likely a crushed liver. She is not expected to live. So the family decide to try and get Darryl transferred from one hospital to the other to see his dying daughter as he is most likely not going to make it much longer either.
How sad is this story? As a parent and wife who's bedside do you sit beside? How do you split your time between two people that you love and you want to hang onto both? This is just tearing at my heart & soul and I know that everyone is asking, why, why - how come life is so harsh? What have these people done?
And you know the hardest part - when I was visiting Darryl and we were both crying and talking about our past lifetime with all of us together in high school, I told Darryl that he did have it better than some. At least he would get a chance to say goodbye to his family. Whether it be in a letter, video tribute to them or whatever. As when a family member is killed in an accident they never get that opportunity...dejavu? How awful to have said that and feel that this was an omen.
How do you pray for hope in this situation? How do you request God to not take both and not put Penny through anymore pain & suffering? How do you ask God to make sure that the little 1 year old baby, not be without a mother and most likley a father as charges are pending against him for this accident.
Once I dry my eyes (for the millionth time) I will ask God to be kind and save at least one of them. And to spare a young person rather than a dear, dear friend.
