I just found this thread. Very touching storys here. I will see if I can get through mine. It is hard to type with tears in your eyes. I had a sister pass away may 2,2009. There were 5 of us children in my family. She was the youngest. She had been married at 20 years old. The man she married I later found had been very physically abusive to her. I received a phone call from the hospital she had been admitted to and the nurse asked if I would come pick her up because she was being released. I called my work and told them I would not be into work, gave them the reason, and hit the highway. She lived about 3 1/2 hours away from me. We had a chat in the car when I got there. She wanted to go back to him and I told her I would not take her back there. I would take her back to my place or she could stay at a hotel where I lived, it was her choice. I just wanted to get her away from him. She was 21. This was 1984. She never went back to him. Fast forward to 1996. She has a boyfriend of some time now but he has a substance abuse problem she doesn't tell anybody about. Alcohol and cocaine were his vices. She goes through hell with this man for several years without saying a thing to anybody. Again she calls me out of the blue. He had hit several cars while under the influence and the police have her because the car he was driving was in her name. It was hit and run and someone had written down the licence number. I told her I would come get her but only if she stays with me untill other arrangements are made. She stays with me and my now ex-wife always complained about it. Fast forward a little more. She finally gets her life together. She has a house of her own. She has a job, ward clerk in intensive care, and a bright future. No boyfriend though. At my daughters 16th birthday party we are standing in the kitchen talking. I think we were getting the cake ready for my girls, I have twin daughters. As we are talking she is constantly reaching around behind to her waist and fiddling with her waistband on her pants. I finally say to her "whats wrong back there, pants not fit right?" She says "No. There is something bothering me. A mole I think." I toold her to turn around and lifted her shirt and pulled her pantd down a bit to look. It was one disgusting looking mole and it had started to bleed with all her fussing with it. I told her to get it checked and the biopsy came back melanoma. Cancer clinic here told her " You had it removed, you're good to go. No radiation or chemo is necessary." She was 39 years old. Within two years she had to have surgery again because it had spread to her lymphatic (spelling?) system. We all knew it was only a matter of time from then on in. She sold her house, quit her job, and moved to be closer to my parents. Shortly thereafter she finally meet a wonderful man that treats her the way a woman should be treated, with love, care and respect. They build a house and move in together. He has three children from a previous marriage that thinnk the world of her. October of 2008 our family takes a trip to France to visit my other sister that lives there. We were there two weeks and toward the end of the two weeks, her boyfriend proposes to her. She said yes, of course, and they plan to have a wedding in june of 2009. She finally succumed to the disease may 2, 2009, about 6 weeks before they were supposed to be married. I really miss her.
Dave C
