Something I forgot to mention....

Got off on a rambling tangent before when I was posting and totally forgot to mention something that happened this past week at radiation oncology on the day of my last radiation treatment.
It moved me to tears...
Then again, it hasn't taken much to do that lately.
In any case, it was emotionally powerful, all the same

I was bulldozing my way out of there, as is usually the case at the end of each treatment since my stomach is growling like a sonofabitch after smelling everyone's incredibly mouth watering scented lunches (my radiation appointments were ALL around noon!) and a lady who was normally one of my regular radiation techs but wasn't on that day, stopped me as I walked out with the tech I was with that day to say goodbye after hearing that it was my last day.

I was then told to "ring the bell" because that is what all radiation patients do when they are all finished up with their treatments. It's a tradition, they said.

I looked at them both as if I were a complete moron, utterly clueless about what in god's green earth they were talking about.
It was a semi-large bell, mounted on the wall right by the tech's station outside the radiation rooms. I don't mean that it was Liberty Bell huge, but it was decent sized....loud enough when rung that it could be audible within a pretty wide vicinity.

Anyway, I got to ring the living shit out of the thing.
I melted into tears...big FAT tears, but of joy this time, upon looking around as people came out and applauded. Then I was wrapped in huge hugs by both women who were two of my four regular radiation techs.

They both congratulated me and wished me only the best of luck fighting off stinkin' ol' mel (okay, that "stinkin' ol' mel part is really my words, but oh well...) and instructed me to come back once in a while and let them know how I was doing.
They both said people never come back to visit--to see them, and they hoped that I would....

Let me just interject here by saying that it never fails to amaze me, people's capacity for caring and genuine kindness in the face of an insidious disease such as melanoma. I have been shocked, awed, and floored, along with having a considerable chunk of my heart that was starting to harden up, soften up to mush...

Me...just a grown up version of that oversensitive and completely over the top emotional kid that was picked on and bullied unmercifully back when I was younger....

My faith and trust in people and their capacity for kindness had been shattered before being stricken with this shitty disease.
Aside from my husband and his family, all of whom I will never stop admiring, melanoma, blight that it is, has shown me something wonderful...

Something that before it, I had almost given up on...

Human kindness, compassion, and caring.

And what a gift that truly is.