The great thing about people with cancer

It always happens that just when I'm about to give up on mankind, something or someone comes along to restore my faith. Yesterday we got together with the folks Tim went through his stem cell transplant with. Two of the couples are in their early to mid sixties and the other gal is a year or so older than Tim,45 or 46. She brought her boyfriend. The two couples live in PA and so
we meet halfway at a chili's out route 80. I am a pretty chatty person and we all did the transplants outpatient and stayed in the same condo complex together so a bond was formed and although I hate what brought us together with these fine folks, I am glad to have them as
friends now. We all e-mail each other and have kept in touch and spending an afternoon with
them yesterday soothed my soul after the really tough week we have had. I had a long un-diagnosed health problem for many years that sincerely affected the quality of my
life. It taught me at a young age what is important in life. Most people my age then and even now have not learned that lesson. I also live in a somewhat affluent area. Though we are firmly ensconsed in the middle class, we live around some very wealthy people. Though I don't like to
generalize, the fact is a lot of people around here are obsessed with money and appearances and
a lot of things that hold no real value to me. I've many times thought of moving but I don't want to move from our families. Our daughter is an only child who is fortunate to have a realtionship
with all 4 grandparents ( I did not have that) and I can't take her away from that. My husband's
business is built on his reputation and moving would have us starting from scratch. Now that Tim has MM, moving is not an option. Although we could find a place with an MM specialist,
you can't give up your support system when dealing with MM especially when you have a young child to look after. We also go out with another couple whom I met through the support group at
Tim's doc's office. Same age as us. It's not that we spend all our time with these folks talking about cancer. We do compare notes and information and share laughs about things too but it is
so different hanging out with people who have their priorities straight and are way past the
"keep up with the Joneses" garbage. The warmth and support is priceless. I actually teared
up when we got there yesterday and I saw everyone with their new curly hair and all looking healthy and
smiling. It was just what I needed to start to wash away the awfulness of the past week. So I
have to say, people who have cancer are evolved way past some of the immaturity that I just don't have the stomach for anymore. I have met some incredible human beings since we started on this journey 16 months ago. You have to take your blessings where you find them.