Focus On Mom

Posted by vhosking on September 24, 2010 · 2 Comments 

A month ago my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Shortly after her biopsy she suffered three strokes.  A couple weeks ago I got on a plane to go visit her for a week.

This is my mom with two of her brothers.  The one to my mom’s right lives in AZ, and we flew out together.  While we were there, my mom had her first visit to Roswell Park Cancer Institute.  Because of the three strokes, they cannot attack the cancer with surgery nor chemotherapy.  She will be starting radiation treatment soon.  She sounds optimistic about it, because the radiation is targeted directly at the cancer and it does not make you as ill as chemotherapy can.

My mom was a smoker for over 40 years.  She always had a little blue ashtray sitting in her bedroom.  I purloined it a few years ago.  When I was little, I never knew it was an ashtray.  It was originally in my grandparents’ bedroom, and my mom’s father would use it to smoke in bed.  My mom was constantly cleaning it out, because she thought it was too pretty to be an ashtray.

Shades of Blue

Remember childhood days gone by
I will always have her nearby
An ashtray becomes my anchor
In blue – my favorite color

 Unmarred by the nasty habit
It sits a pretty glass trinket
Knowing nothing of her cancer
In blue – my favorite color

 Strength to fight the battle ahead
In hushed voices our prayers are said
An ashtray foretells the future
In blue – my favorite color

Veronica Hosking
Poetry Editor

Filed under I Am Family-focused, MAMAZINA Blog, Motherhood