Friday, October 27, 2006

Tribulations that Strong Women Carry

Friday Blog Prompt: To ready ourselves for that, share any stories you may have about strong women in your life, women you've known with breast cancer, or, if you have no connection there, any cause about which you would like to share information.

I can't say if I have known women with breast cancer. I may have, but they didn't see fit to let me know, so I am going to blog about the strongest woman I know... my mom.

She has had a hard life and hasn't complained or blamed society for it. That's pretty rare these days. Her parents divorced when she was very young; then her mother died while she was still pretty young. She had to live in foster homes until her father (my grandfather) remarried.

Now she doesn't have breast cancer but she does have Crohn's disease and has lived with it since I was a young adult. For a long while it meant she had to give up foods that she loved. But she did it and didn't make a big deal about it.

It meant some very bad days, but she made it through them without anyone knowing how bad it really was for her. It has getting better for her and she has been able to eat a bigger variety of foods in the last couple of years, including an occasional glass of wine.

The other strong person I know is my sister, ddpup. She gets migraine headaches, really bad ones. The kind that make you wish you were dead. And she can't take any kind of narcotic. Yet she still manages to get through each and every day with a smile on her face, at least in public. She's pretty amazing, I can't even imagine the pain that she goes through on most days.

5 comments:

Glynis said...

You seem to be surrounded by strong women...it's wonderful that you can appreciate that in each of them. Beautiful post.

Mrs_Who said...

I think women, for whatever reason, can find the strength whenever they need it. Your Mom and Sis would probably say you are a strong woman, too.

carin.c said...

You'd think after assigning women the pain of childbirth that God would assign the bulk of the migraines to men, just to be even handed.

Roses said...

My mom had breast cancer when I was a very self-absorbed teen. She didn't get any support from me because I was in a "why does this always happen to ME" stage of life.
I am ashamed of my selfish behavior.

But I'm proud of my mom. Because even though she went through chemo and radiation therapy, she carried on and worked hard to recover all on her own.

She's a true survivor.

Karen said...

In my experience, strong mothers usually breed strong daughters. And oddly enough it's often the reverse with fathers and sons.
Sounds like you come from good stock Tink.