Strohschein: In loving memory
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- Published on Thursday, January 16, 2014
By: Neil Strohschein
myWestman.ca
The month of January is an anniversary month for me and my family.
In January of 1997, my father died after a seven year battle with leukemia. This past January, my mother-in-law died after a two year battle with breast cancer. Two deaths, 16 years apart, both due to different varieties of the same disease — cancer. These aren’t easy anniversaries to commemorate.
Times like this bring a lot of tears to my eyes. I weep for all of those who have watched a loved one fight a losing battle with cancer. I want you to know that my wife and I share your pain.
We understand what you have gone through or perhaps, are going through now. You are in our thoughts and prayers.
My family’s experience is far from unique. We know of many others who have lost parents, partners, siblings, children or close friends to cancer. We are united in our grief. We are also united in our determination to do what we can to help those who are working hard to find a cure.
In the past 50 years, we have witnessed a profound change in the way people deal with debilitating illness. We do all we can to help them retain and maintain their dignity as people. We are learning that the people we love are always with us, even though at times they are trapped in bodies that aren’t working too well. Thanks to the innovations of modern medicine, we are often able to repair the broken pieces of a human body, or do surgery to remove diseased tissue and thus extend a person’s life by many years.
We have seen a significant increase in the number of events that allow those who have survived cancer, stroke, heart disease or other ailments to tell their stories and raise awareness of their needs. Events like the Terry Fox Run, the Run for the Cure, MS Bike ride, etc. all send the same message—there is a huge difference between a diagnosis and a death sentence. This is especially true with cancer. Early detection and prompt treatment can often result in a person being “disease free” after five years (which, I am told, is as close to a cure as a cancer patient is likely to get).
We are being challenged to make “healthy life style choices” to eat better, to avoid exposure to harmful UV rays, to quit smoking (or better still, not to start), to wear protective gear when handling toxic chemicals on our farms or in our factories. These are warnings we need to take seriously. We dare not hide our heads in the sand and think that what happened to others won’t happen to us. It can happen to us—and it often does.
But despite every initiative that we take, there are still many cases in which doctors must inform patients and their families that there is nothing more that medical science can do for them. And that is when we must watch as someone we know and love makes that journey to and through the valley of the shadow of death.
Today, we dedicate this column to the loving memory of those who may have lost the battle with cancer in this life; but who, thanks to the grace and mercy of God, now rest in His presence — in a world where sickness and sorrow and pain have no place. May they rest in peace; and may their courage and faith inspire us all to hope, pray and work to find a cure for this and all debilitating diseases.
