Touched by an Angel

By Paige Self Thomas

I imagine that each of us has been touched by the horrors of cancer at some point in our lives. As I thought about all the efforts to conquer this disease, and the people involved in organizations, working especially at this time with Relay for Life, I stopped to think how often and how much my life has been affected.

I lost both my natural aunts at an early age to the disease. My best friend as a child lost both of her parents, and I had known them like my own family. My father-in-law also died as an immediate result of this depilating illness.

Seems morbid. Depressing. Why is it so rampant? What can we do to stop it? To prevent it? While all these questions and the answers are vital and well worth our time and effort, I want to tell a story about one of these people who lost their lives to cancer. I once heard (and read again recently) that if you don’t like your circumstance, find a different way to think about them. In other words, take another look.

Let me tell you about one of my aunts. She was my mother’s sister and visited us often. She had a young son about 3 who was the only family member younger than I – and I loved being the bigger person to somebody! I only knew her for ten short years, but I remember that she always seemed to be such a gentle and warm person. I wanted so badly to go and visit her, but I was such a home person, and could not seem to leave home for long. She and my uncle took me home to stay with them one weekend, only to realize that once we reached their home about an hour away, I was too homesick to stay. So they patiently got back in the car and drove me home. I would have been mad at me for the inconvenience. But not her. She was understanding and loving about my need to go home.

I remember her cooking, too. Especially the pineapple cakes! One day as she visited with us, I remember her cooking in my Mom’s red kitchen – my mother loved red. Things began to happen that I really did not understand, but I knew my Mom was really worried about her sister. She couldn’t hold onto the pot and cups: sometimes they would just fall from her hand. On this particular day, she burned herself before even realizing that her hand was on the boiling pot. She could not feel the heat. I didn’t like seeing her helpless in this way. My aunt was not even forty.

In the months ahead, we found that my aunt had a brain tumor. And to make the circumstance seem all the more hopeless, it was positioned in her brain such that it was not operable. There was no way to reach it successfully. As her condition worsened, she had to stay at the medical hospital, and we spent many weekends traveling to visit. This was my Mom’s only sister and I am sure these days seemed long.

Ironically, we also found out in these last months that my aunt was pregnant with her second child. Amazing isn’t it? As she lay in the hospital bed unable to do much for herself, her body was nurturing and preparing for the coming of a new life. With the cancer in her body nobody really knew what would take place with her life and the life she carried. We could hope and pray, and offer our support, but the outcome was really an unknown, and would be left in God’s hands.

I never cease to be amazed at the human will, God’s amazing grace, and miracles. Anyone who has been touched in any way by the disease of cancer and how it attacks knows the ordeal, whether climbing in or out, and the energy it consumes. And although my aunt’s strength waned during those months, she had a mother’s mission and a will to survive. At least until she knew that mission was complete.

My aunt lived to give birth to her second child – another precious son. Oh the joy that giving birth must have been for her at that time! And although I am sure her body, soul and spirit was tired and wracked with pain, this was the ultimate miracle... living to give life.

Just one month after the joyous delivery, my aunt passed. away. I believe it was a peaceful passage. I was awakened by the call, and heard my Mom on the phone. She came and said to me, “The angels came and took Sally away this morning.” I really did not know what that meant exactly. I was sad, and hurt for my Mom, but I could almost hear the angels singing. It had been a long and sad ordeal watching her life ebb away. But in every way my aunt was a dear soul who seemed to live to give life to others. And I believed – I had been touched by an angel.