Sometimes the best thing to do is not say anything. That is what she did, and what I needed to hear. Nothing.
So it was with a great sense of peace with which I entered into the examining room once again. This time to have a biopsy of my left breast, a procedure performed many times during the course of the day on hundreds of women throughout this country. I felt fortunate to be living in a country that would do it effortlessly.
The details I will spare you; anyone who has had one done knows the drill, no pun intended. Needless to say, it is not something you want to have done on a daily basis. It is, however, the incentive to have the yearly mammogram once a year, as is routinely repeated from the age of 14 years old. “When you reach a certain age, there is no reason why you shouldn’t do it….”
Waiting 24 hours for the results was the epitome of patience and retrospective analysis. I had never smoked a cigarette in my life, never did drugs and had always been healthy. What a cruel turn of events it would be indeed to learn the unthinkable. Why did I think I was special and that it wouldn’t happen to me?
Late afternoon the following day, I received the welcome news that everything was fine; I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, imagining all the negativity blowing out into the atmosphere along with the toxins I imagined consuming my body.
I was okay. I was fine. I am here.
My beloved was relieved as I, confident and assured we would be able to make our dreams for the future a reality.
There is still so much I want to accomplish in this life, and I felt like I was given a wake up call to not take a second of the journey towards it for granted. But there was one more piece of business I had to attend to before moving on.
I quickly emailed the one other person who knew and was waiting, having walked along side me every step from the other side of her computer.
“Dear Teresa” I wrote happily, relief dripping from every word. “Good news! I am fine! Everything is going to be all right!”
“Thank God” she said simply. “Now pray for those who did not receive good news today.”
Every person in the world should have a friend like that.
It is amazing how much she says without saying much.
