Powerful - Dedicated to all those who lost their battle and to all the Survivors

I am feeling very emotional right now...I just watched Wednesday night's So You Think You Can Dance show. The last song was perfomed by two of my favorite dancers on the show. This routine was so amazing, touching and powerful, it just blew my mind away!

The dance was interpretted as a woman dealing with breast cancer. As soon as I saw Melissa with her head wrapped in the scarf, a flood of emotions overtook my body, my mind, my soul. Immediately, the memories of the fight my mother-in-law put up for four years dealing with ovarian cancer, the memories of what we went through watching what this horrible disease was doing to her, hoping, praying that she would overcome, the fight she put up, so brave, so much strength. She was so amazingly strong, such an amazing woman. But in the end, we lost her. Gone but never forgotten. My heart still grieves for my son, for his loss of such an incredible grandmother. Alex was her life. He still grieves for her. My heart also grieves for my daughter who will never know her grandmother. How to portray to her what an amazing woman her grandmother was? I do think she knows...I believe she's already met her but damn...why?

Why? That seems to be the question, we've asked ourselves since hearing the diagnosis. We will never know God's plan. Why? Also a question I asked myself after watching my mother-in-law succumb to cancer and then dealing with both of my Grandmother's fight with cancer. After my mother-in-law passed away, my sister-in-law told me that her death will have a different meaning to all of us. There was a reason for each of us why she had to go so early. For me, I believe she had to go because I needed to prepare my son for the loss of his Grandmother in order to prepare myself for the loss of my own Grandmothers.

Watching this dance routine also made me think of two other family members specifically struck with breast cancer. A second cousin I really didn't have the privilege of knowing well but oh, how I remember her funeral. How wrong it was to lose someone so young. A mother burying her child. The loss of a sister. Then, the thought of how privileged I am to get to know her sister who is a breast cancer survivor. My heart aches because I can only imagine what she went through. I am sure she showed strength, courage and hope. She is truly an amazing woman! My prayers go up that all things remain good for her in her life.

No one should have to deal with this but for those who have fought and lost and for those who have fought and won -- you are my hero!!