It was just another Summer night. My mom, being the nice, cool mom that she is had let me and my brother Connor take her car that I loved driving so much out to grab a bite to eat. We were on our way to Chik fil a, which just so happens to be one of my favorite places to eat when my mom texted me saying, “Come home now we need to talk.” Now I don’t know about you but after I hear “We need to talk.” I sit there pondering in fear all the bad things I have done lately.
I started to reply to her text while driving, then my brother says “Garrett keep your eyes on the road I don’t want to end up on one of those commercials for tragic accidents due to texting. So I put my phone down knowing it could wait. Once we got there I pulled in a parking space and texted her back saying, “uh okay Im going to run in and order really quick and am I in trouble?” I opened my door hopped out of the car forgetting my phone was on my lap it fell to the ground. I felt so stupid… When I went to pick it up my mom had already replied telling me, “No Garrett you two need to come home now this is very important!”
I had no Idea what I could have done or what the situation may be. I asked Connor, “Do you know why mom’s acting like this?” He didn’t have an explanation either. I got back in the car still craving Chik Fil a and hurried home to see what the problem was. I pulled up to the driveway into the garage blaring my music as always and headed inside, put the keys back on the counter and proceeded to the living room with Connor to find my mom and her skydiving boyfriend Terry and my oldest brother Clayton sitting on the couch waiting for us.
I sat down thinking I was in trouble. She then said, “we have some news we need to let you guys in on” We all looked at each other and asked, “Good or bad?” This moment would forever change mine and all of our lives from then on. she answered us, “I was diagnosed with breast cancer early in December, but didn’t want to tell you thinking it would ruin your guy’s Christmas.”
Most people’s reaction would be negative but me, I always try and look at the bright side along with the rest of us. I immediately jumped into my moms arms and gave her a long, tight hug and told her “everything is going to be alright mom, after all at least they found it early.” She took the whole situation very well. It made us all so proud to see how strong my mom really was, honestly she rarely if ever complained too.
Even as time went on and it began to get progressively worse she was still able to keep a smile on our faces including her own. I tried to be there for her as much as possible with work, jujitsu and school it wasn’t the easiest though. Its time like these where no matter what's going on you feel as if you aren’t there as much as you would like to be. She had so much support from everyone, you name it they were there.
Even our neighbors would stop by at times and bring us delicious dinner and keep her company. My Aunt Kim had taken off three whole months to be there for her and her boyfriend was always there with her as well. Not to mention he lived three hours away in Springfield he still managed to be there more than most of us.
I came home from school one rainy day expecting my mom to be home as usual but she wasn’t. I called Terry to see if he had gotten her. He said no and to check to see if she had driven over to the health clinic. So I quickly threw on a jacket and ran over to the clinic to see her car in the parking lot even though she wasn’t supposed to be driving, afterall I mean she could hardly walk with all the medication they had prescribed her. I was so relieved to see her there and that she was okay! I told her, “Mom I can't believe you drove yourself over here, you had me worried about you!” she just gave me that adorable smile because she had been having trouble with her speech.
Thats when the doctor told me I needed to take her to hospital for an MRI scan. So I took the keys from her and pulled the car around and helped my mom in the car and headed to BJC Cancer Fusion Center. We got there and thats when I really started to notice it taking a toll on her. she could hardly walk and I just knew something wasn’t right… after we signed in it felt like forever before we got out of the waiting room.
They took her into the nurses room and ran some normal tests then took her to a room that I wasn’t allowed into. I sat there waiting anxiously for them to come out with her. after about fifteen minutes they brought my mom out in the wheel cheer and transferred her on to a bed and into a room. I called my brothers and told them to spread the word that me and mom were at BJC and that we would be here all night more than likely.
Once the doctor came back with the MRI results It was Connor, my cousin Ashley and I in the room with her. The doctor took a heavy sigh and thats when we all had a feeling it was bad news. “Im sorry to have to be the one to tell you guy’s this, but it appears the cancer has spread to your mother’s brain on her cerebellum causing her slurred speech and difficulty walking.” I immediately looked into my moms eyes and thats when the tears started to stream down my face.
Even the bad news couldn’t phaze my mom though. she looked at me and the rest of us and said, “Guys Im fine, really everything is okay.” Her confidence made me smile. Still I was angry, and sad at the same time. I just asked myself “why!?” why does this have to happen? Cancer is such an evil thing and she shouldn’t have to go through this and neither should we. My cousin Ashley hugged me tight and the tears came fast and furious after that. I just want my mom to be okay thats all, I didn't know what I would do without her.
The hours in the hospital quickly turned into weeks and it was so hard to be there for her with the hospital being so far away, I mean you pass two just on the way there. Every chance we got we took to go up there though! After a long three weeks she was released from the hospital back to home and things started to look up for her and us. Guess you could say all the prayers payed off after all!
My mom was so happy to back at home with us and out of the hospital. As the weeks went by though she only began to get weaker and in the back of my mind I just knew it wasn’t going to much longer until she would go. “God saw she was getting tired and a cure was not to be. So he put his arms around her and whispered come with me. With tearful eyes we watched her suffer and saw her fade away. Although we loved her dearly, we could not make her stay. An amazing heart stopped beating, hard working hands went to rest. God broke our hearts to prove to us he only takes the best.” and just like that the best mom in the whole wide world went to rest.