Challenge Day #12

Abraham Lincoln said, "To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own." Have you ever eased your heartache by helping someone else?

This is deep.

One of those questions that really make you stop and think about yourself.

Easing heartache.

Mine or someone else's.

I just don't know, people.

Wouldn't this be a better question for the people that are in my life?

Have I ever even eased some one's heartache?

Funny thing.  I just took a break from this post to answer a phone call.  A very important phone call.  You see, I have a friend that is battling cancer.  The thing is, he doesn't really seem to want to battle.  His family wants to do what the Doctors say, but he doesn't seem to have it in him.  He was scheduled for his first round of chemo therapy today, and he didn't want to go.  The whole thing is a mess.

What is right and what is wrong?

It did make me stop and think about my dad.  He died of cancer.  When he was diagnosed, he decided he wanted to fight.  It was going to be a long road, but if he wanted to fight, I was behind him.  The first week of radiation was hell.  It basically cooked him from the inside out.  He made it through one week, then said, "That's enough.  I am done."  Again, I was behind him.  He came home for a while and it was hard.  I finally had to put him in a nursing home. 

On Christmas Eve.

It was miserable.  Talk about heartache.  He was furious with me.  I cried all the way home.  When I went to see him on Christmas Day, he was a completely different man.  Gone was the anger.  Gone was the frustration.  He had attended the morning church service, and it was like the day before had never happened.  This started the next and last phase of our relationship.  It was wonderful, and I will never forget those days.  I wrote about him, and I will share it with you again today.

He eased my heartache.

I hope I eased his.

Celebrating a last New Year's Eve with my Dad - Out with the Old, In with the new