Archive of a Breast Cancer Survivor
02.14.05
Happy Valentine’s Day
These are my parents. Mom and Dad. Lillian and Biggy. This is a photo of their
engagement day, my Mother sassy in her crème dress with a big bow tie
and my Dad in his blue suit. The good old days. People dressed up for occasions
such as this. This Valentine’s Day, I wanted to show the picture of the
people who have been nurturing me, keeping me in their home during the “bad” week
of chemo. They have no issues feeding me all the quirky foods my taste buds
and stomach can handle: English muffins, peanut butter, swiss cheese, apples,
plain-boiled and tasteless chicken, and lettuce leaves (thanks to my father’s
organic garden). That is about it. That is all that I can handle during the
bad week following chemo. You’ve got it, my tremendous diet that leaves
me feeling rather lucky I can eat at all. These are the foods that my life
rotates around. Every two hours I try to eat a handful of food from my limited
diet. My parents are saints as they keep the house stocked with such foods,
always introducing some exotic, perhaps pasta with two tablespoons of sauce
to wet the noodles just enough. These are the people who are by my bedside
waiting out the storm just as anxiously as I. And I love them. Thank you Mom
and Dad for every handful, for every pillow adjustment, for every blanket you
lay across my body limp and exhausted from going into the ring and fighting
the most important knockout fight ever. Thank you. Love, Adriene.