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Thanksgiving grief over cancer deaths in my family, but grateful for many positive aspects of family life.
Of Grief and Gratitude at Thanksgiving
© Helen Heightsman Gordon
Being grateful is not the same as being happy. My 61-year-old son died in April of melanoma cancer, and my 62 year old niece died this month, November 11, of breast cancer metastacized to her liver. She is the daughter of my deceased twin sister, who died of a brain tumor when she was only 57. My whole family was exposed to radioactive fallout from the Nevada Atomic Test site when we lived in Utah in the 1950s. The radioactive particles stay in our systems our whole lives, so we can be feeling the effects 50 years later. Seven of us have died, and some of us are suffering from auto-immune diseases (such as my own Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and my nephew’s alopecia, and my brother’s lupus).
I am grieving as I inevitably must, but I am grateful for many aspects of my life. I have reached the age of 84, old enough to see my grandchildren grow up. I even have some great-grandchildren. One of them, about 6 years old, came up to me and asked, “How come you’re so old?” I smiled and replied: “I had to get this old so I could meet you.” He’s a precocious youngster, but it took him a while to grasp the concept of generations. He’s 10 now, and his mother keeps me informed of his antics by email. I am grateful that I have seen my 3 grown children become good parents. I am thankful for the joy
I exercise my attitude of gratitude every day – thankful to be alive, to have been born in the U.S.A., even in the Great Depression. I’m getting treatment for the ailments of aging. I am thankful to have wonderful supportive friends and idealistic grandchildren who want to make the world a better place.
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Thank you so much for sharing your grief as well as graditude; this world can be cruel. My brother died at 58. He was in the Australian Navy and watched the British explode an atomic bomb at Maralinga in South Australia after which he suffered and could barely walk when he died. I have also been poisoned but mine is from a family of antibiotics given for chronic UTI, too late I learned that the "Fluoroquinolones" are Black Box and debilitating, sometimes permanently. At the same time we too have the pleasures of family, married 55 years now with four children and eight beautiful grandchildren who we love watching grow. I have just discovered your writing and have been enjoying reading Shakespeare & The Occult.
Judy
I'm thankful that you were able to write this and tell us about what you had to go through and how you still have hope from that younger generation that is so idealistic. It's that generation that gives me hope that some of our most severe problems will be solved by them while we spend much time arguing over whether they are real or not.
Ron