By Chloe DiVita
In order for everyone to understand my journey with cancer, how it affected me, and how I came to make the decision to start this Foundation, I decided to share my story. It will appear over many posts, as it's a fairly lenghtly story, and I would love you to share your experiences as you read mine. I will still update on my efforts for starting the Foundation, but I believe my story will offer the most understanding to my perspective, and why I beleighve this Foundation will be so important to so many people. So, here it goes:
It started back on the 4th of December of 2002. I was at my in-law’s house, who at the time were simply my boyfriend’s parents, along with his sister and her new baby. We had just finished dinner and were sitting around the table chatting. The phone rang and my husband’s father, Ty, answered it. I kind of knew something was up because he just got this blank look on his face and got up and left the room. No one knew who it was. We all just kept talking trying to act like everything must be fine. Then, he walked back into the room with a look of sullen on his face. He looked around at us and said, “That was Jodie. She’s on her way to the hospital. Leigh is being transferred via ambulance to Evanston Hospital for emergency surgery in the morning. They found a tumor in Leigh’s head.”
I don’t fully remember all the conversation after that. I remember all being stunned. I remember we all wondered about Chris and where he was and what he was thinking. I remember thinking about how freaked out Leigh must be. And I remember a few periods of silence where we all sat and just stared. Not at each other. Not at anything. Just a blank stare. I was thinking about the craziness of a brain tumor. Brain surgery. Removing a portion of your brain. How insane is it that we can even do that and survive?
That was the beginning.
Comments