When I was 12 my mom took my sister and I to see Step Mom starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. The one about the mom that dies from cancer. That night I came downstairs and laid on my mom’s lap and cried my eyes out at the thought of her ever dying.

Two years later on a Monday night at the end of November we got the dreaded phone call. It was strange for someone to call our house at 8pm. That night we found out my mom had breast cancer. Throughout the next few months we learned they caught it early and although it was aggressive she would be able to have a bilateral mastectomy and not go through chemo or radiation.

Now here we are 15 years, 6 months, and 24 days from the day of that call. She has ovarian cancer and it’s bad. Unlike the pea sized tumor that took her breasts this one is out of control and has spread. And it feels like the life has been sucked out of me.