Ahhh, March Madness…I’m down to the “Final Four”…radiation treatments, that is, not basketball tournaments!
I began my 30 treatment regimen on January 25th, my son’s 18th birthday. Eddy missed a few classes that morning to accompany me to the cancer center, making this a double-milestone for our little family. 
By law, he is now an adult, and his first official act was to hold my hand and report back to his away-at-college-sisters that he had inspected the machine, met my radiation therapists, and given his approval.
(His second official act was to go straight from the cancer center to City Hall’s Registrar of Voters…smart and handsome!)
On my fifth day of treatment, I changed into my not-exactly-couture little blue hospital gown and joined another woman seated in the waiting area. I approached her and reached out my hand, “Good Morning, I’m Mary Ann.”
She took my hand, smiling as she looked up at me, and said, “I’m Joy.”
As I took her hand with both of mine and tossed my head back, laughing, I said, “Of course you are! You are my ‘word of the year!’ I keep telling everyone that joy is waiting for them…and here you are – waiting for me!”
We laughed and hugged and I thought, hey, there are worse things than spending the morning with Joy!
The next day I entered the waiting area, and sure enough, there was Joy…waiting for me. She said she had a present for me, then pressed a colorful little note card into my hand, telling me it had fallen out of a book that morning and upon seeing what it said, she knew it was meant to be…meant to be mine.
It had one word printed on it in bold letters – JOY – along with the following scripture quote:
“And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”
~Deuteronomy 31:8
I keep that card in my purse, and now I take joy with me…everywhere I go.
Hope Lives!
Mary Ann
