Cancer is Evil

The entire Unity community has taken to a very darling, brave little girl named Taylor Jones. She has a form of leukemia. You can read her story here. She recently had a bone marrow transplant and, as of a couple days ago, is cancer free. This is amazing news. When I tell you that it does my heart good to see someone beat this horrible, nasty disease, it is a vast understatement.

I have a friend from Swap-bot who is dying. Her name is Cheryl. Her husband posts about what it's like to live with a terminal patient on his MySpace blog under the heading Cancer Sucks. Every time I get an email alert that there is a new post, I fear the worst. I know it's going to happen. I just hate it. I can't imagine what her family is going through, particularly her children.

Then there's Bill. I knew he had cancer. But. When we last spoke, he was in remission. I guess I expected him to beat it. Part of me thought he'd live forever. When I got the word on Monday that he'd passed away Sunday morning, it was like someone had taken all the air out of the room. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't cry. He probably would have hated knowing it, but he reminded me so much of my grandfather that I'd started to think of him as somewhat of a surrogate. Bill, I think, would much rather have been thought of as a Casanova. He had such a gruff exterior and a marshmallowy interior. I am really going to miss him.

Out in blogland, there is something you can do to help fight this evil disease. Wendi at Kaput Krafts has a nephew named Ryan. He asked her to offer blog candy - with a caveat. She has received donations from several large stamp companies. Ryan is participating in St. Baldrick's Foundation "Shaving his way to Conquer Children's Cancer." He is trying to raise $1500 for Children's Cancer research. I do not know if any of their prior research directly helped Princess Tay, but I certainly can't discount it. So, go here and read about how to participate.

Please donate. Every dollar counts.