“Let’s go, I’m going to be late if we don’t go now.” Her grandma said as she got into the car.
“What is this appointment even for?” The girl said as she got into the car.
“It’s just a check-up. It shouldn’t take too long.”
But they didn’t know that would be the day that their lives changed forever. Although cancer tore our family apart, it also brought our family closer.
Morgan got told to sit in the waiting room with her aunt until her grandma was done meeting with the doctors.
“Why is there so many nurses running around like chickens with their head cut off?” Morgan asked her aunt.
“It’s a hospital, they have to be in a hurry most of the time they’re here.” Her aunt answered.
“Why are their pamphlets about cancer everywhere?” the girl asked.
Her aunt just responds with, “Why do you ask so many questions?”
Morgan didn’t realize they were at the cancer specialist that day for her grandma. She just said it was a check-up and it shouldn’t take too long. The longer they sat there Morgan began to worry more and more. “When is Grandma coming back?”
“When the doctors are done talking to her. They just have to talk to her about her medications.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Morgan didn’t get an answer, which made her worry more.
Hours past, and then her grandma came out, tears running down her face. Morgan knew something was wrong.
“I have to go make another appointment and then we can go.” Her grandma said. Her aunt went to get the car.
Standing in the elevator Morgan asks, scared about the answer but asks anyway, “Is everything okay, grandma?”
“No, they found a lump in my right breast.”
The young nine year old curiously asks, “What does that mean?”
“I’m sick Morgan.”
“Well so am I. Maybe we can share hospital rooms.” She says excitedly.
“Morgan, I have breast cancer.” Her grandma says urgently.
Morgan’s eyes filled with tears. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I had a little surgery today, called a biopsy, like what you have on your kidneys in Iowa City. They took a little bit of the cancer out to see what type of Chemotherapy I will have to do.” Her grandma adds. 
“You had a biopsy? Like me?” Morgan quickly says.
“Yes, but in a different situation… I need to come back next week to get the results.” That was the longest elevator ride Morgan has ever taken.
Cancer is a journey, but you walk the road alone. There are many places to stop along the way and get nourishment — you just have to be willing to take it. ~Emily Hollenberg
“Are you going to tell grandpa?” Morgan asks in curiosity.
“Yes dear, I have to. He knows I had to go today to the specialist.”
“Well why didn’t he come with us?”
“I told him to stay home.”
“Do you and Aunt Sue have the same doctor?”
“No, her doctor’s in Clinton.
Scared for her grandma, Morgan stops asking questions she could tell her grandma was already in enough pain. She tried not to cry in front of her grandma because she knew it’d make her grandma feel bad. Morgan didn’t say another word till she got home, and she broke down to her cousin. You don’t get to decide who gets cancer in life but you do get to decide you support through it. Although it was hard the day they found out, it is still hard to this day. Her grandma goes for appointments every 4 months to keep everything monitored.
“Grandma, when is your next appointment?”
“Next Wednesday. Why you want to go with me?” Her grandma asks hoping she’ll say yes.
“Yes!!” Morgan said with excitement. “How is your chemo going?”
“Well I don’t actually do chemo. I just have to take a pill for four years and then hopefully it will be gone.”
“Really? That’s all? That’s cool that they have a pill for it now.”
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
Cancer is something that doesn’t just affect one person. It affects that one person, their family, their friends, and their doctors. “No one is alone in this type of fight.” Morgan always got told.  Family brings everyone close, but it’s the little things that bring your family closer.