I work in the research institute portion of the hospital.  Sometimes I eat lunch in the main hospital where people are there visiting loved ones or are patients themselves.  Most days I don’t think about that.  I don’t pay attention to the fact that I’m surrounded by people that get bad news or are hoping their loved one is OK.  That was until I became a loved one.  Until I became a person walking around the hospital with her mom and getting food.  Now I’ve started to notice.

The other day I saw a woman crying and it broke my heart.  And then there was an elderly man sitting next to me calling either a friend or family member to describe chemotherapy to them.  And today I heard a woman telling her family that someone had lung cancer and that they couldn’t cure it.  That they could just sort of pause the cancer to extend his life.

When someone you love gets cancer your world kind of stops and you feel like you’re alone.  But I guess we’re not so special because I work in a place where everyone has their health issues and everyone is there looking for their miracle.