Surviving

One of my favorite sounds I have heard lately is my neighbor Merlene talking from her front door to various friends. I can hear her through my open bedroom window.

Merlene has a solid reputation as a talker. When you say hi to her, it's just a given that you'll be engaged in conversation for at least half an hour. As far as I can tell, everyone in the neighborhood knows that she loves us all and she'd do anything for us. Over the years she's given us lots of great advice, especially about growing things in our garden. We've seen her more than once giving other neighbors tours of our garden, as proud of us as anything for producing a few tomatoes and squash.

A few months ago she found out she had cancer. She's been going through treatments that haven't had much of an effect. A few weeks ago, she and her doctors decided they had to step up the treatments and be scare-the-wits-out-of-the-tumor aggressive.

Across the street from us lives Joe, father of three children all younger than our Jack. Over a year ago he was diagnosed with colon cancer and given exceptionally daunting odds. We've watched him lose far too much weight, and we've watched him walking in tremendous pain after multiple surgeries. Last week he announced that according to the results of a very sophisticated test, he is officially cancer free! He could barely speak he was so overcome by the relief from uncertainty.

I know that Joe's cancer has nothing to do with Merlene's cancer. But maybe Joe's triumph is giving Merlene hope. While I don't have any recent details about how Merlene's stepped up treatment has been going, I consider the sound of her voice through my bedroom window a very good sign.