My Aunt Karen and her Boobs

I started this post on Oct. 30 and never finished it, and never published it. So here it is...why not?

I love my family.

My immediate family, my extended family, the family I see all the time and the family I don’t see enough. I have a fabulous family. My sisters and I are best friends. We’re all close to our mother. Our dad is adorable. My nephew is insanely cute and brilliant, and my son and daughter are as near to perfection as you can get. We spend a lot of time together, and have dinner together nearly every single Sunday. I can’t imagine life without them!

Last weekend, I went to visit another family member of mine. My Aunt Karen! Aunt Karen has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was having surgery, and I rode with my mom for the five or so hour drive to Odessa, where Karen lives. Waiting for us there were Aunt Karen, Uncle Jerry, my cousin Amy and my cousin Jerilyn.

Jerilyn and I spent hours talking the first night I was there. We stayed up way too late and drank way too much wine. At least I drank way too much wine. I have no idea where Jerilyn was on that – I was just trying to stay focused on our conversations. We hadn’t sat down and talked for probably years and years. The last time I saw her was at her wedding, so of course we didn’t have much one on one time at that point, and before that, I honestly don’t remember the last time I saw her off the top of my head. OK I’m lying because she came to town summer of 2008 for a pool party. I think that was the date. Either way…please don’t jump on my case. It’s been a long time since Jerilyn and I actually hung out HUNG OUT. That’s my point.

Anyway, like I told her, it was as if we’d just pushed a virtual pause button on ourselves, and the second we saw each other and started talking, it was as if we’d only seen each other the day before. It was wonderful and we had a great time. The next morning came very early. Uncle Jerry had taken Karen to the hospital at some ungodly hour, and Mom, Jerilyn and I were up before 7. We headed to the hospital by 8am and remained there for a good part of the day. Aunt Karen’s surgery was delayed some because of an emergency, but we spent our time leading up to the surgery taking turns being with her, in pairs as the hospital only allowed two visitors at a time.

Finally, Karen was wheeled back and we spent some pretty tense time in the waiting room. Jerilyn honed her Diner Dash skills, I surfed the ‘net, Uncle Jerry furiously chewed Nicorette, Jason read magazines in the corner, Amy played on her iPhone, and Mom even began to try her hand at Diner Dash.

When the surgeon finally came to tell us that everything went well, Uncle Jerry’s eyes welled with tears immediately. He announced that he thought he might cry, and as furiously as he was chomping his Nicorette before the good news, you should have seen him concentrating on that stuff, just trying to keep himself together. It was BEAUTIFUL, it really was.

Once we found out that everything went as well as we could have hoped, Amy headed to get prescriptions filled, Mom and I headed to Target for various supplies, and Jerry and Jerilyn stayed with Karen until she was released.

I think we all kind of enjoyed taking care of Aunt Karen. She’s usually the one taking care of us. Cooking or cleaning or buying gifts or whatever. But this time – we cleaned, we cooked, we ran errands. The person who touched me the most was Uncle Jerry. He doted on Aunt Karen like I’ve never seen. He hovered constantly. There was a steady stream of conversations such as:

Karen: Thank you for my (2nd) breakfast, it looks delicious.
Jerry: You’re welcome. Do you want some more toast? Or bacon? There’s more!
Karen: No thanks, I don’t know that I can finish what’s on my plate.
Jerry: OK. ***Then walks over with a piece of bacon and piece of toast and drops it on Karen’s plate***
Karen: Thanks, honey.
Jerry: You’re welcome. Hey, I’ve put on another pot of coffee and when it’s ready, I’ll get you a slice of that cheesecake with some fresh coffee.
Karen: Well, maybe later. I am just really….full right now.

Too cute!

My Aunt Karen's going to make it through this. That's not just positive thinking, that is a fact. She's got a pain-in-the-you-know-what (the boobie, of course) road ahead of her, but she's going to be fine. Even better than before. Know why? Because her husband is never going to NOT appreciate her ever again. Because I adore my cousin Amy and we text silly stuff back and forth. Because she has an entire army of family who will be at her beck and call and there for anything she needs. Because I reconnected with my cousin Jerilyn and got to see that as adults, we have as much in common as we did when we were children and super close. All these, and other things. I told her I was so sorry she had to be the one to deal with this BS, but that I couldn't ever have imagined all the good that would come out of it.

I love you Aunt Karen! We all love you so much!