Take off your hat, I want to stand up.

Chapter 46: Breast Cancer.

Chapter 46: Breast Cancer.

The diagnosis was breast cancer.

As I sit in my comfortable big brown leather chair, I am looking out at the green field as it sings to life in early May. The birds are chasing one another in natures game of tag. The dandelions are proud in full medal regalia, bugs are bugging about. I stare off into space, as I recall a minor medical miracle that happened to Ev in late 2000.

The new millennium was peaking around the corner. The experts had missed the event by a one year. This is acceptable in a thousand year period, what is one year? It also made me wonder if these experts still had a paid position? They bursted onto the scene proclaiming the 1999 to the year 2000 as the beginning of the new era. In reality the new millennium would not be in effect until the year 2001. It mirrors the very first at home party you host and your parents cancel their plans to be home with you. It is also the first time you clean the whole house from top to bottom.

When it arrived the celebration had already taken place. I watched the fireworks celebrate the new millennium, from Lisbon to London, New York City to Perth, Australia. It was spectacular.

When the actual millennium 2001, stepped up to bat, all was silent. We were too sheepish to admit a mistake that took place on a global scale. It makes me wonder what else are we missing? What other large scale events have the experts taken a powder.

Then there is the miracle of Ev.

Her Doctor gave her the grim diagnosis, she had a massive lump in her left breast. After a further, more extensive medical work up the cancer word was used to describe her condition. Ev had advance stage breast cancer. Her time would be short. She did not wish to under go the horrid treatment of kemo therapy or radiation. What would be the point? She had been a super- hero quad for the better part of sixteen years. She would not contest the cancer, let it do it' s worst. She was not afraid.

She was a quadriplegic, now she had breast cancer. The very same cancer that hailed from days gone by. It had visited her own sweet momma. Jessie went to Texas to the Laetrile bogus clip joint when her situation needed medical satisfaction. We tend to want to believe in magic when all else turns to sour, hard candy.

The look on mom's face when she said the words, I have breast cancer, and I do not care. I am going to ignore it, and hope it goes away.

Six weeks from the first bad news, the Doctor admitted her into the hospital. He did not expect her to come out of the hospital again. In his opinion the cancer would have grown and spread, the prognosis was grim. The family braced for a sliding scale of deteriorating news. With a small application of faint hope, we waited as she under went further investigation.

But no, low and behold.

The cancer was gone. The image scan machine found not one little bit or a trace of cancer. They could not detect any form, no bump, no lump, no blood analysis, nothing. The Doctor could not explain the complete absence of the tumour that was suppose to take her life within days. The cancer was gone.

Ev said she thought away the cancer by not accepting it in the first place. My old mom would have placed a high regard on prayer to her maker, but her thoughts on a spirit of grace had changed over the years. Billy Graham often said each person has doubt at some point in their relationship with the holy spirit. On this occasion she did not subscribe to divine intervention. She leaned more on the positive attitude of not believing it was her time to die, not just yet. She still had things to do. She had booked another trip to the city of lights, Vegas, baby. She was not going to miss Vegas.

This time she had booked a fine suite at the Venetian with a view of the mountains in the deep distance and a view of the golf course close by. The Venetian had the hottest slots and the best room service, she would not be doing any dying, perhaps after the trip. Perhaps then she would die.

The breast cancer had no medical explanation. It had an Evelyn explanation. She said she felt it leave her body through the night, she felt it drain away. It is as good an explanation as I could think of, Ev wished it away.

Ev was wiry and tough. In her prime she could have taken us out. It may not have been pretty, or exactly legal but if she had a mind to prove a point with a swat, clip, punch or the odd swipe with the fly swatted she would not hesitate to improve our attention on some minor point. We learned to keep one eye on her shadow if we thought we were not minding her direction. We also kept a good arm and a half length between us, with our exit plan near a back to the door. There was more than one time she would call out after one of us get back here so I can give you a good spanking. O.K. but you need to catch us first. The door would always crash closed.

It was this sports minded toughness that beat the cancer, she willed it to be gone. That is my explanation. It seems to fit.

How tough was my mom? Just remember her dad, coming out West with a few dollars in his pocket and the ability to work. Let alone that of her mom, Jessie Blair, who got all caught up in the wringer washer. Who had survived a kidnapping. Ev was like that and then some.

Ev said her own cancer pain was totally gone. She had cancer, then she did not. She felt kindness had smiled upon her pain. I could not argue against it.

Once in a short while, good people catch a break