Member-only story
Gardens, Hope and Cancer
Having something to look forward to helps me live
I have metastatic brain, lung, and liver cancer. I was diagnosed in April of 2021 and given 6 months to live. Obviously, I have outlived the prognosis.
This last spring, I got a few plants.
My yard is very small, so I don’t have the room to plant a proper garden. Instead I have a few containers on my front porch. A bell pepper plant. A tomato. Mint. Basil. Swiss chard. Barely enough for a salad every couple of weeks. But…
I look forward to the harvest.
One thing I’ve discovered while dealing with cancer — having something to look forward to, having a hope for the future — this makes it easier to fight to live.
You need to fight when you have cancer.
Everything is a struggle.
It’s harder for me to walk these days. My stomach often hurts and my appetite is off. I lost my hair. Then it grew back. Now I’m losing it again. Small hurts take much longer to heal. There are days when I have no energy, when it’s hard to get out of bed.
It would be easy to give up.
But I don’t.
I have a garden.
