Cancer
By: Julia Kirkpatrick
What would you do if someone you loved was in pain? You would help them, right? What happens when you can't?
Walking into my home after school the atmosphere different, something didn't feel right. The warm welcoming air that usually greeted me was distant and replaced by this cold, sad feeling. As I walked around the corner to say hi to my dad before grabbing food from the kitchen cabinet, I ran into my mom. Tears in her eyes and her shoulders slumped over I knew something was wrong. Looking at her in concern and confusion I knew it was about my dad. My mom and him were recently visiting the doctor for his reoccurring stomach pains. She could barely look at me as she slowly began to speak, "Julia... Your dad and I just came back from the doctors. He has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma... Cancer." I look at her in disbelief, my stomach turning, "No Mom. You're wrong. He's fine." She was lying.
My father, the man that I grew up admiring and would talk about anything with, was being taken down by a nasty disease like cancer. She was lying. Quickly looking away I ran downstairs to my room. This is a joke. No one in my family could be affected with something like cancer. Not MY family.
Time began to blur together and soon enough my dad was two months into chemotherapy. While walking out of our weekly Sunday movie we were debating the pros and cons of the movie and which one we wanted to see next. Looking down at his light blue shirt I noticed it was not blue anymore. The whole front was full of his brown/red beard hair. Looking back at his face I was in shock,