P.S. I Love You

So I’m sitting at Muldoon’s sipping on my weekly coffee. Did I mention that I love this place? I really feel like I need to tell them I have a twin that lives here so they can attribute my unhealthy habit to that. I’m about to become a “regular” with a “usual” and a coupon every time. I also know their work schedules and the other employee that comes in the same time each Friday with his girlfriend to partake in whatever off-the-clock specials they get. Yeah. It’s getting that bad.

So anyway… I’m sitting here on this very comfy couch listening in on the girls near me. It’s not a crime. It’s actually kind of their fault for talking so loud within earshot of me. I like to think they want me to listen to them. Yeah. That’s it.

One of the girls was talking about her mom, who had pancreatic cancer. She was told she had a few months to live – but lived nine more years and even entered remission. It then came back and she was given a month to live – and lived another year before passing away. During the times where she was under the impression she didn’t have much time left with her daughter, this woman taught this girl everything she knew. She taught her how to cook and made her cook dinners. She even purposely didn’t pick her up from school (and didn’t tell her about it) just so the girl would figure it out on her own. Wow. What a mom!

But that’s not the part that gets me the most. The best part of this entire story is the letters her mom left behind for her. Her mom wrote her daughter a letter for every single milestone – from 16th birthday to high school graduation to first major break-up to wedding day and birth of her first child. Incredible!! She even already picked out a wedding present and wrote letters to this girl’s future husband and children. Wow. Wow. Wow.

I’d like to think that if I were ever unfortunate enough to find myself in the position of having a certain time left to live, I would do the same sort of things. What a lucky girl, to have a mom that cared so much and loved so much to be so productive in her final time here. So incredible.