My Story – Uterine (Endometrial) Cancer: P.S. to Yesterday’s Post–Life on the Infinite Walkway

Yesterday I wrote about my one-year “to the day” anniversary of being diagnosed with uterine (endometrial) cancer. Today is my one-year “to the date” marker. And I am lucky.

Watching the evening news last night, November 3, I saw three stories about people who have lived lives that were, yes, challenged by cancer, but more importantly were full of significance, influence, and inspiration. Today I wish to pay homage to them with a brief acknowledgment here:

• Brittany Maynard

• Oscar de la Renta

• Lauren Hill

It is easy to toss around words such as grace, dignity, and courage. It is not so easy to live them. At this writing, Lauren is still with us. No matter what you believe, don’t believe, or don’t know that (or what or whether) you believe, please hold them in your heart and send loving thoughts their way, whether you call them prayers, meditations, or good wishes.

This summer, I honored other people whose lives had been intricately bound with mine (Life Giveth, Life Taketh Away . . . and It Giveth Again).

Yesterday, I spoke of both turning back and standing still in time (My Story – Uterine (Endometrial) Cancer: Turning Back the Clock and Looking at “The Fault in Our Stars”), ending with a quotation from John Green’s powerful, moving, and very real story of young people defying cancer with the fierceness and sheer power of love: “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

Toward the end of the book, one of the characters is eulogizing another, talking about the infinite numbers (carried to many decimal points) that reside between the bigger numbers we recognize in everyday life. The final words of the tribute speak to the unknown worlds and existences that transcend the boundaries of our circumscribed lives as creatures of earth:

. . . I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. . . . You gave me a forever within the numbered days.

Here’s to you, Brittany, Oscar, and Lauren. I hope to meet you all on the infinite walkway that takes us through and beyond our numbered days that we do not know how to count. Thank you for walking among us during our time-bound existence on earth.

Godspeed as you continue on your journeys, wherever infinity takes you.

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”