The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

Sean always enjoys himself

It's almost fall. Clear skies. Warm water. Warm days. The tourists and summer crowds have gone home. It's beautiful, we love this time of year.

We attended the monthly family support group for cancer kids at Children's Hospital San Diego this evening. Except tonight it wasn't a support group, it was an art show, with all the art was created by patients of the hematology-oncology clinic and their siblings.

Building a wall that will stand up against the tide

We didn't know in advance it was to be an art show or I would have taken my camera. Being St. Jude patients leaves us kind of displaced when it comes to all the local hospital happenings.

A 17-year old boy we'd met at the hospital before had done a beautiful piece of art. Part of it was a photo, his hand with IV tubing in it and a hospital bracelet on his wrist clasping someone's hand. A photo of the MRI that showed the glowing tumor in his brainstem.

A quote by Louisa May Alcott below the photo, "I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship". Another quote above the photo, "The best thing that ever happened to me".

He's in his senior year of high school. He walks with a cane. He's going to college next year.

There's a short article about him in this month's San Diego Magazine, he's at the top of the page, Zac York.

As parents of kids with cancer, we try very hard to live in the present and not to look too far into the future. There's a plaque in the checkin area at St. Jude, that quote by Babatunde Olatunji, "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present."

But watching Zac tonight I felt it so strongly it was like a wave, that's the future we so desperately desire, the one where we're getting ready to send Steven off to college.

Steven's initials-- he leaves his mark

"The best thing that ever happened to me"... it's profound.

These kids are so extraordinary... bloodied but unbowed.