I recently learned that a dear friend has been battling cancer. She’d tried to contact me, but with all my social networking savvy, I’d failed to alert her to my new email address. It had been several months since we’d spoken, and when she didn’t hear back from me, she wasn’t quite sure what to think. And well, she had other things on her mind.

My husband discovered her email quite accidentally when he checked an old address we’d shared. And there it was….a note from her announcing to her friends, all and any she could think of, that she was most probably dying.

I immediately called her and fumbled through an entirely inadequate apology for not being there for her. But, it didn’t matter. She was just happy to hear my voice and to reconnect with an old pal she thought she’d missed. As we caught up with each other and she explained the hell of her past few months with rectal cancer, I was relieved to know that she had built an extensive support network through an amazing website called www.lotsahelpinghands.com. Through this wonderful site, she has been able to schedule volunteers to help with rides to and from treatments, grocery shopping, housework, and any other needs that come up. It’s a good thing because my friend doesn’t have too many she can rely on….or so I thought.

Woe is me…
Sometimes I mope when things don’t go my way. I guess it’s one of life’s curses for being the youngest in a large family. I learned to turn out my bottom lip at a very early age. It worked for me for a while, until life showed me that it just didn’t care how pitiful I was. So, I’ve made a concerted effort over the past 20 years or so to retire the bottom lip movement. I’m better. But, old habits die hard. And, then I think of my friend.

This lovely spirit who has never failed to make me smile and appreciate the beauty in life virtually has no family. Her father died many years ago and her mother lives in a nursing home in Connecticut, a prisoner of multiple sclerosis. She has a brother, but it’s a distant relationship. (As the youngest of five children, I still have more family than I can count…..and many of them I’d gladly give away.) My friend has never married and has no husband or children to rely upon. She can’t work and, therefore, has no income. She also has no health insurance. She has nothing, right? Wrong.