What Cancer Taught Me About Christmas
Facing the Season with Hope, Fear, and Unwrapped Truths
The problem with having cancer is that you meet other people with cancer.
And they die.
This truth is one of the many unwrapped realities that comes with a cancer diagnosis. Cancer doesn’t come in isolation. It drags along a community you never wanted to join, filled with stories of both courage and loss that blur the line between hope and heartbreak.
Some of those people become your friends. As a caregiver, you bond with others in ways you never expected. You share stories about treatment schedules and the endless logistics of managing appointments. You exchange tips — not for dealing with your own pain, but for helping the person you love face theirs. You find humor in the absurdities of hospital life, like the maze of hallways you can now navigate blindfolded or the vending machines that somehow never stock what you want. You find comfort in their victories, because every win feels like a collective triumph, and their losses hit you like your own. There’s a strange solidarity in it, a shared understanding that only comes from walking this road together.
When my wife was first diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, the odds felt abstract. Percentages on a page, risks calculated by doctors. At…
