Monday, July 18, 2005

Mucho Poquito o Nada

Last night I asked Miranda, "How much do you love me?" It's a question game I often played with my own mother. I would ask her, "Quanto me quieres? Mucho, poquito, o nada?" She would playfully answer, "Nada," or "Mucho." I told Miranda this story and she answered, "Mucho!"

I came to work today and a co-worker was very upset because she received a phone call from her mother. Her mother has cancer and is a diabetic with heart problems. She and her sisters just found out that her mother has a tumor and that the chemo she's taken hasn't done anything for it. She was very upset and was crying.

It brought back so many sad memories. One of my sister Hilda dying of cancer and also of my mother dying of heart problems. All I could do was hug her and let her cry on my shoulder. I literally felt her pain.

I think of myself thirty years from now, if I'm still here, and I imagine Miranda going through the exact same sorrow. I don't want that. Seeing my co-worker like this and remembering how I felt when I lost my own mother is all the motivation I need to continue on my quest for good health.

"Cuanto me quieres?" I asked.
"Mucho, mucho," she answered.
How I wish I could hear those words again.

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