Unrelated Family...

Last week I stopped in my parents’ restaurant.  I went in to see if my brother was around.  When I got there he told me a couple ladies asked about me.  Two women were there who worked for Dad years ago.  I was reminded of something as we sat and talked.  

I thought of my time in Africa.  I remembered how their concepts of family were so different than what I remembered growing up with.  They have an understanding of community as family.  They live near one another.  They share with one another.  They help with raising kids.  I realized I had more of that growing up than I remembered.  I did much of my growing up in a restaurant that my parents opened when I was 5.

As I sat and talked with these women I remembered that they had been like family to me.  They had helped participate in my upbringing.  I had watched them work hard and love people.  I had watched them poor love into me and I was better for having received it.  

One of them is sick.  She has battled with cancer for a while.  A couple of years ago they told her that she wasn’t going to live past Christmas.  She is still alive but struggling.  They have stopped her chemo.  They decided it has worked as long as it can.  

She talked to my Dad on the phone while I was there.  She told him that she was trying to wait for them to return before she died.  Not long after the conversation she asked me a favor.  She told me that she had asked Dad before to do her funeral.  The favor of me was if she didn’t make it until he got home would I take his place.  I was caught off guard.  I told her that of course I would do it, but then I told her I didn’t want to do it so why didn’t she just wait until Dad came home.  She assured me she was trying.

Yesterday, they found two more tumors.  This time they are in her brain.  They started radiation treatment.  We aren’t sure how well it will work or how long it may continue her life.  I hope that if her days are few or many that I am able to be used as a light for her and her one remaining son.