Me, I'm fine. Part II

A few weeks ago I got a call from my cousin. Actually, she is my husband's cousin's wife. We are very close, even though there are four states between us. We hadn't spoken for a few weeks and she began the conversation with "I have to fill you in on the events of the past two weeks." She began to talk and the words I heard were: "mammogram" "spot" "a special kind of mammogram" and "mri."

I heard from her after the MRI. This time the word was "biopsy." I spoke with my cousin after the biopsy and she said she thought she would have the results by Friday. Friday came and went and I began to wonder. By Saturday morning when I hadn't heard any good news I became more concerned. But then I got distracted thinking about Frank, and going about my own daily stuff, in my own life.

The call came in the afternoon. The time the words were: "early stages" "contained" "surgery" and "radiation."

Late that evening, when my daughter saw how worried I was, she asked me if I was okay. I looked at her, a healthy child standing right in front of me, and I thought about my healthy mother and my healthy sister and I thought about all that I had and I thought about how so very worried I am. And I said,

Me, I'm fine.