I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in July of 1999. While I was going through treatment I was encouraged by words of hope and encouragement spoken to me by complete strangers who had walked the same path. Those "chance" meetings meant a lot to me and kept me focused on getting well. I always thought of these women as "angels" of hope.
Yesterday I met a woman at a motorcycle event for autism who had on a Breast Cancer pink ribbon dew-rag and also a Ford Motor Company Warriors in Pink (I think that's what it's called) scarf around her neck. So I asked her if she was a survivor.
She said, "No, but my mom and her sister are, well, her sister is, my mom passed away." Then she showed me a beautiful necklace that she had made with her mom's engagement diamond (marquis cut and large) set so that it was suspended from a pink ribbon charm.
She then went on to share that both ladies were 40 when they were diagnosed and that her aunt is a 17 yr. survivor. She said that she is scared and keeps checking herself daily practically and dreading when she turns 40 in a couple of years.
Later, when I was going over the encounter in my mind, I thought of all the things I could've said to her about advances in treatment etc. and was thinking that I hadn't "done" enough to make her feel better but then I realized that I had said the perfect thing for her to hear and that, in a way I was an angel for her.
What I said was, "That isn't neccessarily so, remember, you have your dad's genes as well."
Marathon, FL