It all started February 27, 2004 , that was the day my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. We already knew that she had some health problems in the past like a low white blood cell count and that she was susceptible to getting cancer among other things. At the time I didn’t really know what was going on, after all, I  was only about 1  years old. I always just thought my mom was just a little sick. Little did I know she had full blown stage 2 cancer. I didn’t even know what cancer was. And so my story begins.

It’s every little girl’s worst nightmare to lose their mother, and mine was coming true. When you’re a little kid you don’t have a care in the world and you're oblivious to everything so, naive. You depend on your parents for everything when your little because you can’t do anything on your own ,you don’t have the skill to do things on your own. When my mom got sick I was only running with half a set of parents which was a constant struggle. Although my dad did the best he could, he wasn’t equipped to raise two kids and go to work at the same time. Luckily enough, we had a lot of family in Missouri. My Aunt Selma was there to take care of my brother and I so, she was a big help around the house. We were starting to get a hang of things with our current situation.
Occasional my mom would come home from the hospital and she would be too weak to do anything after all she was pregnant and going through chemo. After my mom had my little sister she started to go through stronger treat. Once she was on stronger chemo she went bald and lost a lot of weight. I didn’t know what was going on. I had gone to school and started telling my friends that my mom was bald thinking it was just a bold fashion choice. Susan, my moms’ friend would come and visit us and I would go over to her house and have playdates with her daughter. Occasionally she would take me to see a lady who also had breast cancer and I would say,” Hey my mom’s bald too”. I was so unaware of what was really going on.

Once my mom had gone through about 6 months of chemotherapy she seemed to get better. It wasn’t like instantly she was cured but she was getting better. When she would come home she would spend time with me and my siblings. We would sometimes go out but not often because she was really susceptible to getting sick by bacterial infection. We couldn't do a lot of rough playing with our mom because she was so weak,but it was still nice to see her out of the hospital. When she had enough strength she would cook dinner and go to church with us. We went to church a lot during that time praying that she would get better.

In the end, all of our praying paid off and I am thankful because of it. This close encounter with losing my mom has changed me in so many ways. I have learned that life is short and that I shouldn’t take people for granted. I have also realized that I would have  been a completely different person if I had lost my mom. My mom was and still is a huge part of my life and a big factor of me becoming who I am today. I think that I am who I am today because of this event and I am thankful that it made me into who I am today.