On The Ending of Things:

Yesterday I finished a book of Sudoku number puzzles. I’m good at them and they help me pass the time quickly when I have to wait and I can’t bring my knitting.

The puzzle books in my life get quickly bent, twisted and abused. There are places where the pen went thru the page as we hit a pothole or some such thing.

I’m good with books in general. It takes a few readings of a paperback book before the spine gets broken. I never dog ear the pages or write in the margins.

But not so with my puzzle books. I doodle in the margins and take notes. I tare corners off of pages. I bend the cover back. They are abused by me until they are of no more use and they get thrown away or recycled.

Cancer has bent, twisted and abused my friend Lady Pink. She had breast cancer once and beat it. Thirteen years later it started again and once more a reprieve of a few years. This last time it had taken its toll.

Lady Pink is dieing. She can no longer do for herself. She’s stopped eating and can no longer talk. This is an ending I find harder to take.

She has a husband who will miss her most terribly. They are still very much in love. Her children and grandkids will miss her too.

I will miss a friend who couldn’t give up the fight. Who tried to the bitter end to beat this thing. This terrible cancer monster. This killer of my friend.

I want so desperately to keep this cancer thing away from everyone I know. I try to treat them all as I do a reading book and try never to abuse them, twist their bodies or bend their souls.

Within a few days Lady Pink will take her last breath and be here no more. She is very mad about cancer and as her husband said to me yesterday, ‘God had better watch out. She is very mad about the fact cancer exists the abuse it causes to the human body.’

We will be less one more brave fighter in that war. Love ya Lady Pink.