Parents struggle with the news that their child, of any age, has cancer. 

Today would have been my grandmother’s 107th birthday. She lived to be 100.5, a good long, full life. I cannot believe that later this year will be seven years since her passing. My aunt and I were diagnosed a month or so apart and we were both in treatment when my grandmother passed, neither of us told her about our treatment. We didn’t want to worry her. She was, after all, 100.

I will never forget the day I told my mother about my meeting to go over my pathology reports. I thought it was just a routine, this is the update type call. So when she said is it cancer and shut her ears off I was a little surprised. Turns out no matter how old you are and no matter how certain you are things are going to be ok, parents just don’t seem to take the news well.

I had a LOT of weird communication challenges with people when I needed to share my diagnosis. The one with my mom was one of the most unexpected. Tell me, what was your most unexpected cancer communication?

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