Soul Surfer

Yesterday was a difficult day for me.  


At night we watched a film that appeared to be interesting, Soul Surfer. Have you seen it?  Well... I just couldn't hold it in. I cried like a baby, but it really is worth seeing.




 Especially when Bethany goes to Thailand after the 2003 tsunami. Watch it, if you can, it will really put things back into foccus. And check out what it's all about, it's a real life story: Bethany


 It was the cherry on top of the cake.

In the morning I had met Arlete, a friend of mine from work. I first met Arlete 10 years ago. 

She had just married and was a cheerful and considerate person who was eager to have a nice, big family like her own had been. She almost tiptoed around me as I was recovering from my first breast cancer treatment. When we met my hair was probably just about half an inch longer than now.

Arlete went on to a different location of our service and we kind of fell apart. 

She had 2 wonderful children, Matilde and Tomas. And one day (I don't know how, haven't gotten to that part of catching up yet) they found out Tomas had a brain tumor. 

He was 2 years old. After struggling against illness through half his life, moving to France for a while and then to the USA for different approaches to treating the illness (it was one of the rarest types of brain tumor), after 3 relapses Tomas left his family for good.

Arlete is back to work, with a smile on her face and the tears hiding in her voice but a sense that she did every single thing she could to make his life easier and to try to cure him. She's a very strong and positive woman and she says Tomas chose her because he knew she would do everything for him and now he's her little angel looking over them.

So yesterday we me at the IPO--Instituto Português de Oncologia. When Tomas was being treated there she started a project--to remodel a physical therapy room for children at the institute. She wants to finish it, in honor of her son. We had an appointment with the guy who is going to paint the treatment room walls (check out his blog here).

It will probably come out to be along these lines...

After that she went to talk to the doctors and nurses who cared for Tomas. 

It was really hard seeing those children who are going through the same we are... it's not fair!

There was this 2 year old little girl who liked me imediately and pointed at me smiling and saying "menina!" which means little girl. She jumped from her dad's lap to mine  and started playing with my necklace and sending kisses. She was replacing her catheter because the one she had was no longer working, and she had been there almost since the day she was born. She has a benign tumor in her optical nerve that keeps growing in spite of the chemo. 

There was a lady who had lost her 14 or 15 year old son last night. It was so hard to see... and not to cry the entire time!

I left that place with my heart broken and a feeling that there's something I have to do--something I haven't done yet to help, that is my mission. Does that sound silly? But I have to find out what it is...

These two women are examples of strength, and willpower and courage. I just wish I could be like them!

Thank you for being here "listening" :)

xxx