A Meaningful Life, Part 3, Who I am

"I am an only child whose parents were high school sweethearts that married after graduation and then I was born a year later. My dad owned his own business. My mom worked full-time outside of our home from before I was born but was always involved in my life and our church where she was a bible school teacher and I was her “best assistant” or so she told me. In or out of church: I loved God, I loved Jesus and I loved people. And I loved singing songs at church so I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to sing in the choir; I wanted to rejoice and be happy like those I watched every Sunday in chorus. My life changed before I was old enough to sing in the church choir though. When I was in third grade, my mother and father separated and then divorced but later reunited and shortly after, my mother was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. I was in sixth grade. She had many surgeries to remove the cancer and she participated in a university medical research study as part of a group that either received: 1) a placebo, 2) a routine chemotherapy drug, or 3) a more invasive chemotherapy drug treatment. She was never told which group she belonged to but I have to speculate it was door number three that she was behind as she beat cancer and has been cancer-free over thirty years later, remarried to my father as though there wasn’t a day they weren’t a couple since high school."

Tomorrow: Part 4, Business professional