Journal of a Living Lady #59
Nancy White Kelly
I got an email from
a friend this week who always addresses me as the World’s Longest Living Woman.
I enjoy her philosophy. Looking through my medical records which I have learned
long ago to keep myself, I discovered an interesting fact. It was exactly three
years ago this month that I had the biopsy that confirmed my breast cancer had
invaded both lungs after a twelve year remission.
Also in the file was
documentation from three doctors, including two oncologists and a general
physician, confirming that that the cancer was in bones and lymph glands. In another section of the notebook was a
photocopy of the doctor’s admission paper for hospice which generally means you
are down to your last six months. (I removed myself voluntarily from this
program after three months. Their goal of keeping me comfortable was achieved,
but I wanted another day to fight on my own terms.)
The average life
expectancy, with treatment, is about eighteen months. I have made it thirty
six. This is phenomenal. Answered prayer no doubt. No, it hasn’t been a picnic,
but I am still alive. Life is what you do in God’s universe on God’s time. So I
keep on keeping on. It ain’t over until it is over, not an original thought but
true.
I’ve attended
several burials of friends during this time period, most with cancer, all of
whom I expected to outlive me. Often I wonder why not me. I don’t have the
answer to that other than I still have work to do. Probably my “to do” list is
longer than others who don’t have terminal disease. I have always been that
way. I don’t have time to die, but it is an appointment we will all keep.
Next Sunday is
Easter. I suspect the churches will be filled again with once a year visitors.
It is better than never attending at all I suppose. But the faith that sustains
me requires more than that.
I have never used
this column as a personal invitation, but want you to know that I teach an
Adult Sunday School class almost every Sunday in Room 332 at 9:30 a.m. at McConnell
Memorial Baptist Church in Hiawassee, GA. If you have no other church plans for
this Easter, why not come just this once and hear some genuine evidence of the
Resurrection. We are not hung up on denominations, just the reality of the
Scriptures. Anyone is welcome, even atheists and skeptics.
I love skeptics because I am a living proof that faith and prayer work.
https://www.angelfire.com/bc/nancykelly
