relay for life and something you might not have known

Just got back from the Relay for Life walk, a walk for cancer survivors, their family and friends, and for the friends and family of people taken away from us because of cancer. It was very hard for me to sit through the ceremony. Both of my parents have been through cancer. When I was in second grade, my mom got colon cancer. She had to have her entire colon removed. She had colitis befor being diagnosed...her mother died of colitis when my mom was about six years old. I was only eight years old at the time, but I will never forget every Friday when my mom went to NY for chemo, and how sick she would be when she got home. And then in the summer of 2006, just 5 1/2 months after I was diagnosed with diabetes, and two days after I went on an insulin pump, my dad was diagnosed with Leukemia. It was an extremely difficult time for me, and the entire family. He was in the hospital for a month after he was diagnosed, then he was let out for two or three weeks, and then he went back for another few weeks, let back out for two, and then was on outpatient for his third round of chemo. My mom drove two hours every day to go stay with my dad in the hospital. She took my two younger sisters most of the time, and any other family members who were healthy and wanted to see him (no one with a cold or anyone in contact with a sick person could go...you had to wash your hands each time you entered his room because they wiped out his immune system, getting his white blood cell count down to almost nothing, and then slowly building it back up). I am the only one who never went to see him. I couldnt. I talked to him on the phone a few times, but I could never go. Not because I was sick, not because of diabetes...because it was my dad. My dad who I always saw as this big strong guy who could never be sick. I knew if I went I wouldnt be able to handle it, so I never did. I saw a picture of him from when he was sick, and all I could do was cry. I guess it was worse for me with him, rather than my mom because I actually understood what was going on. I was 15, and when my mom was going through it, I was only 7 or 8. Thankfully both of my parents are very healthy, and in remission. I am thankful for every day I spend with them, and I realize how important family really is, especially in a time of hardship. I may have diabetes, and I will for the rest of my life until we have a cure, but after what I have seen happen to my parents, and some close family friends, I consider myself the lucky one.