To ladies in the club …

Really, one of the best things about having cancer has been some of the people I’ve met along the way.

Today, for instance, I had a wonderful, long, gossipy lunch with a new acquaintance who also has Stage III colon cancer. We are both about the same age, similar backgrounds, children the same age, etc. I’ve met her only once in person before, but we yakked away at lunch like long-time best buds. It was huge fun, and I have the feeling that this friendship will outlast our cancer.

After lunch, I came back to the office and found an e-mail from another new acquaintance, a local radio personality. She found out recently that she has breast cancer and is about my age, similar backgrounds, etc., etc. We’ve never met in person but have talked on the phone and her e-mail today was chatty and funny. (She lamented, for instance, how her 17-year-old daughter’s daily dramas often overshadow the cancer thing — I can totally relate to that. For a teen, it’s hard to focus on mom’s cancer when you have a badly timed pimple outbreak.)

When I was first diagnosed, a couple of co-workers who are cancer survivors said ruefully, “Welcome to the club.”  It really is a fraternity, and not in just a sad, pathetic way.  I find when I’m talking to other people with cancer, it’s often a pretty humorous conversation. 

And today, the lunch conversation wasn’t dominated by cancer at all. Still, we talked about it some, and it was an unspoken subtext throughout the lunch. It’s sort of like the way that pregnant women and new mothers bond with each other — your life suddenly has a new context, and it’s a joy to talk with someone who is going through the same metamorphis.