Personal Narrative: My Uncle's Cancer

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17). My dad’s sister and her husband Mike are the sweetest people you could meet. They have lived in Virginia all their lives, and raised their daughter Mallory there. One day in the summer of 2015, he noticed an abnormal bump on the back of his tongue. My aunt told him he should get it looked at by a doctor. The tiny bump on the back of his tongue turned out to be mouth and throat cancer. What is the effect of being diagnosed with cancer on Uncle Mike? What are the effects of my uncle’s cancer on me? In the first place, it made my uncle and our family feel scared. Cancer has the same

At first, it was mostly the shock that caused tears. But even after the initial blow wore off, we still had a heavy heart to carry around. The thoughts were overpowering. There was not room to focus on anything other than the chemotherapy appointment scheduled at two thirty or the doctor’s appointment at eight. Did he make it okay? What was it like for him? How did it go? The sadness didn’t stop for everyday tasks, such as doing laundry, finishing homework, or driving to work. We felt desperation at every moment of the day.

In the third place, the cancer made us all feel courageous. We wanted to be there for him by consoling him and offering our words. I called Uncle Mike on the phone more times in a month than I had in the past three years. When someone may be dying, it is necessary make sure that they know how much they are loved and cared for. Acting like a fortune teller becomes a primary concern. “Everything will be okay” transforms into a synonym for “Goodbye, talk to you later.” Mike’s cancer gave us courage we didn’t know we had.

And this brings us to our fourth and final point: