Welcome to 2TheHeart!
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"It is not length of life, but depth of life."
~~Ralph Waldo Emerson~~
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This particular story brought many tears to me as I watch my own sister Angel, valiantly battle cancer herself. Sister-love is a special bond and I personally want to thank Vanessa for the legacy she left behind as well as her pioneering sacrifice that has helped to save so many women today! She was a young and beautiful hero.
"Vanessa's Legacy"
by Amanda Krug
While most girls her age were preoccupied with giddy anticipation of first dates and sweet sixteen birthday celebrations, my sister was reeling from the discovery that she had breast cancer. Breast cancer at sixteen?
Yes, breast cancer....at sixteen. Even the doctors were baffled and shook their heads in disbelief.
Vanessa had always seemed mature beyond her age to me, perhaps because she was the oldest and I was the youngest of five children. When our parents divorced, we were quite young and she took on the role as Mom's right hand helper, sharing much of the responsibility of watching over the other four of us. By the time she was sweet sixteen, she was a mother herself, married and, in 1972, carrying the perverse distinction of being the youngest known "woman" in Indiana to have breast cancer.
I have never been able to fathom the depth of emotion and fear my sister had to have suffered at such a tender age, the age when most of us are just beginning to learn about ourselves as women. My sister became the draftee of a pioneer journey that even the bravest explorer would have declined. On one hand, Vanessa was a child wrestling with adolescent thoughts of how embarrassing it would be to shower after gym class when you've had a mastectomy, or wishing she could attend a homecoming dance instead of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
On the other hand, she was a young woman with a full knowledge and understanding of intimacy, aware that her feelings of sensuality would be tested to its limits. And, ultimately, what about the future? Would she even live to raise her son or have more children?
This all took place in an era when medical science was still unsure about cancer and mostly unsuccessful in its attempts to ascertain a "cure". Reconstructive surgery was little more than a concept awaiting research, and prosthetics were primitive in design, fashionedwith materials unsuitable for the lifelike task they needed to perform. The fake breasts were painfully unrealistic, especially ill-fitting for a young, developing body.
Vanessa's life ended six years later, snatched by the same thief who had stolen her innocence and refused her her womanhood. She fell victim to her illness but never became a slave to the disease as she embraced life and cared for her husband, her son and her daughter. If she knew her time was short, it was a well-guarded secret. She never complained.
Vanessa had complete faith in Christ and fought her cancer with courage and honor, even allowing the doctors to learn as much as they could from her body as they attempted many then-radical and experimental treatments.
Perhaps today there is a young mother who plays happily among her own children and welcomes home her beloved husband each evening, or a woman who runs a marathon, or a grandmother who is surprised at a golden wedding anniversary dinner, or even a young woman who celebrates her sixteenth birthday cancer-free, all because of Vanessa's legacy. I'd like to think so.
Thanks, sis...I love you!
Amanda Krug
Fishers, Indiana
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October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Perhaps to most,"awareness" means knowing and utilizing methods of early detection or educating the public about current trends toward cancer prevention, but, for me, it means more than that. It means remembering the ones, like my sister, whose sacrifice of life itself made it possible for us to be where we are today - living not in fear, but with strength and hope. With this tribute to my sister, I honor each one of them.
My favorite title is full time homemaker and Momma, but occassionally I am a writer too! Married seventeen years to my wonderful husband, Michael, we are the proud parents to four amazing and perfect-for-us children: Abby, Lilli, Evan and Grant.
Send Amanda an email at: krug_family@iquest.net
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Tomorrow is the last day to send in your letters of how you made a difference for Make A Differnce day last week! It doesn't have to be for that particular day, but send us your letters (brief) of how your kindness, work, compassion, or love made a difference in someone's life, or in the world in general. We'll run our "Make a Difference" letters in Friday's Letter Box! (It's not to late - you can do something today!)
The Letter Box:
Susan,
Thanks for running such a lovely poem on such a perfect Fall day! The poetry you have selected is top-notch and brings music to my heart! Bonnie's Church does have such a way and a gift with it - I love her work!
~Jess V., CT
Susan,
I had never visited your art & poetry page, but after seeing your announcement about Clark Wray's new poem, I finally checked it out. First off, his poem is touching and I hope we see more from him to come! Secondly, WOW!!!! Your Art & Poetry section is breaktaking! I can imagine the work it must take and you have done a splendid job! I plan to visit it often, just to give my self a little break from the world and enojoy something truly beautiful and soul-restoring.
~Mary Keene, WY
Dear 2TheHeart,
I love your kid talent forum page and the fact that you give children a chance to show off their own talents! The quote by Maya is so perfect and it goes to show how pure in heart children are! I hope Maya sees this and knows how impressed I was with her quote and her ecard!
~Ginny Spencer-Press
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