When What You Fear Comes True
When my mom was 49, she was afraid she was pregnant. She noticed some swelling and that her period was off.
The doctor informed her she was not pregnant. She had ovarian cancer. Through tears and some sarcastic laughter, my mom responded, “Now I want to be pregnant.”
A year later, she was informed her cancer was terminal. Maintenance chemotherapy kept her alive for four more years, but her end was inevitable.
About six months before she died, my mom asked me to help her with a project. She wanted me to draw cartoons of all of her fears.
Up until this point, I thought my mom was just born angelic or with some superhuman form of positive brain chemistry. I had no idea she was actually scared.
She asked me to draw her fears in a humorous way, so she could look at the cartoons and be lifted out of a dark place. She also paired each cartoon with a thought or Bible verse that encouraged her.
It was difficult to watch every single one of her fears come true.
She did die with pain.
Her tumors did distort her body size and ability to move.
She did not get to see any grandchildren born.
Normally people talk about fears not actually happening. That they’re just in our head…
