Claudia's Fight
you write to me… My dear friend Claudia was able to finally get back to her 2nd grade class room early last week, she calls them her “Angel’s”. Claudia made each student in her class a personal journal with the caption on the front cover….”I’ll write to you if….you write to me!” Her objective, to help her little ones understand her battle with “Cancer”. She encourages her class to ask her anything and she will do her best to explain. As she shared a couple of the questions, written in true second grader form it was priceless. There are a few students who are more outspoken in asking Claudia about the kind of cancer she has, what is it like to have Chemo and why will your hair fall out. Being back in the classroom is a huge victory for Claudia, for her, this is her life and missing a day means missing a precious question or interaction she would share with one of her students. She bravely told her class she would be losing her hair..she asked the kids if they thought she should wear a wig or go bald. The kids encouraged her to wear a wig, they liked her with hair. And last week her fear of losing her gorgeous hair came to pass, her beautiful hair fell out in hand fulls..She decided to have Mack Fenn come over and do his magic…She text messaged me that night and said, “Mack was incredible, he knew just how to cut my hair and style my wig. I was a big girl I didn’t even cry!” It is hard to have a friend you love, fighting an incomprehensible enemy. From all outward appearances she looks great, one would never know she in fighting for her life. The experience for me has been humbling to say the least. It’s impossible for me to put into words how I admire her courage, perseverance and sense of humor. It’s harder for me to understand the “why’s? On a lighter note, last week as she wore her stunning wig to school for the first time, after sharing time, one of her students came over and said…”Mrs.B you forgot to take the price tag off your wig…” Claudia was mortified…when she could finally leave her classroom she asked someone in the office if they could see the price tag…..No price tag…just a small white piece of fabric which could be carefully tucked away. I joked with her and asked if she felt like “Minnie Pearl”.
Her first round of Chemotherapy proved to be brutal, as she was just starting to recover from surgery less than 8 weeks ago. After feeling death coming on for 9 days, the nausea finally started to subside. It was if the sun began to rise once again on her horizon. She shared her courageous stories of fighting back the overwhelming nausea while her youngest daughter worked on her classs project at the foot of her bed. In her dignified manner she politely excused herself and struggled to make her way to her bathroom. Once behind the secured door, she was able to let her frustrations and tears free fall.. Her white blood cell count is (1), which means she has no Immune System to aid her in fighting off the lowly common cold. She talks candidly about her small defeats, small victories and underneath is all….her sense of humor is absolutely captivity. When you are with her its impossible not to laugh..out loud…
I don’t begin to understand why…I do know Claudia has extreme faith in her Heavenly Father and understands it’s His will that will be done. I was counting my blessings last night…and felt impressed to let you know…”I’ll write to you if…..you in turn will write to me…” I would love to hear from you with stories of courage, inspiration and overcoming adversity. We are one in the same. Together we are stronger collectively than individually. Take a minute to add someone to your prayer roll! Pray changes things.
Life with intensity and purpose!
Carla
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