My personal stories with fighting family cancer started at the very young age of 9. My mother was 39 yrs old when she was diagnosed (by the stroke of luck) with stage III Ovarian cancer. The doctors’ prognosis were anything but hopeful. The strange thing was a few weeks before the diagnosis she’d undergone an extensive health checkup elsewhere and was told she was fine. But how could they ever miss such an enormous tumor in her belly? We’re still dumbfounded. Anyway… My parents told me straight up Mom had cancer, and for my entire 4^th grade year she lived in Florida (at a cousin’s home, with Grandma as her caretaker) where she had operations and treatments, including several chemo rounds. I recollect little about that entire year oddly, only that I missed Mom and was looking forward to her returning back home with us, as if that were a fact. Luckily she did return home with us, cancer free, and life went on. It was only when I was much older that I learned the doctors had told her she’d most likely not make it, and also of her fears of not being able to watch me grow and be with me at all of my milestone life events. That’s how bad her cancer was. But she defied the odds. One true hero.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. Three years later she got cancer again, only this time it was in the short intestine. Apparently it stemmed from the original ovarian cancer, so some cancer cells had spread there somehow. She underwent more operations and chemo treatments, only this time I was older and had a much better understanding of the reality, and she didn’t move to Florida for a year. She traveled back and forth to the US for operations and chemo treatments. It was a real reality check to personally face the face of cancer. I saw her lose all her hair, and all the other effects of chemo. It was not easy to see her suffering, and it really was an eye opener. Luckily once again, after the entire ordeal she walked away from an ill fate, victorious. Cancer free.

What are the odds, right? Well… come to think of it… 3 yrs after her second cancer scare she had it again, only this time it was in the colon. Things went about the same way they did when she had it in the intestine. Back and forth travel for operations and treatments, watching the effects of chemo, and all of us fighting strong, together. I am so proud and happy to say, for the third time the cancer did not claim her. She was cancer free. She claimed victory, and so did we.


It’s been almost 20 yrs since her first cancer, and 13 yrs since her third and last cancer scare. I’m happy to report she’s alive and well, loving and living life, and enjoying being a Grandma. She’s been able to be at my 15^th and 18^th birthdays, high school graduation, college graduation, wedding, witnessed the birth of Nico, and will now be coming for Victoria’s birth. Life is wonderful.