“But do you remember being scared?” she asked. “Did you know really what was going on? I only ask because very few people with your type of cancer could answer these questions. They would, uh, be dead.”
Shelly had never really considered what Betty was saying. Her emotions, her feelings were important. Betty was right. Few people could relate such information. She remembered being scared at first, but she had some good memories of her four months as a patient at St. Theresa’s. A lot of nice people took care of her while she was away from home. She was often the center of attention. The memory of Kristen death had hindered memories of the happy times from coming forward, but lately some had been pushing through.
“I’ll have to document some of those feelings, Betty. You’re right. But off the top of my head, scared at first, yes, but the staff and doctors really made my stay pleasant. And it’s really hard to say whether I considered my own mortality at the time. I was old enough to know what was going on, but the finality of what could have happened, I’m not so sure.”
“Doctor,” said a tall, lanky young man whom Dr. Hayes had acknowledged in the back of the room, “my father is an MD in South Florida, and he says your Foundation is giving people false hope. How would you respond to that?”
Nick stood up when he heard the question. “I got this.” Shelly
gladly handed him the microphone.
“If I might, I would like to answer this young man’s question.” He paused. “Before I met this amazing woman here, I watched my mother die of breast cancer in the arms of my father. And as a young boy, I watched my older brother, Chucky, pass away at the age of ten from another cancer. Leukemia. In both cases, at the end of their lives, doctors said the same thing: There’s nothing more we can do. The word ‘hope’ is never around. For those of you who have never seen someone die from cancer, well, it’s an ugly part of our lives. As fate would have it, I was fortunate to meet this woman they call the miracle child. From the moment I did, my life changed. She, along with Dr. Wall, beat cancer at its game every day. She provides hope, strength, and love to more human beings than I have time to talk about. The goal of the Kristen Foundation Project is to do something extraordinary, to save more lives. Can you