Sometimes a phone call brings happy news–of babies expected or babies born, of scholarships won or tests passed, of engagements and weddings, holiday greetings, and job promotions. But sometimes, a phone call delivers more troubling news. So when my sister called to tell me this afternoon, I could tell by her voice that the news she had was the troubling kind.
You see, my grandfather had surgery at the beginning of this week to remove a cancerous tumor. After the surgery, the news was optimistic because it didn’t look like the cancer had spread outside the area. But today, the pathology report revealed that about 1/4 of the surrounding lymph nodes were cancerous. So my grandpa will need to undergo chemotherapy. Now, no one wants to ever hear this news, about themselves or anyone they love, but too frequently it finds us anyway. And then you pray. You reevaluate your priorities. You calculate the cost of a plane ticket home. You find old memories resurfacing. You make lots of phone calls. And you pray some more. Because this kind of news is hard to take.
Amanda, I’ll be praying for your family. This is so hard. I lost my Opa to prostate cancer last year after a years long struggle.