After having two wonderful, rambunctious sons I really was hoping for a daughter. And on May 7th, 1976 my beautiful Gina Marie came into our family. It was the happiest of days. And for me it started a relationship that has matured into truly being best of friends.
Big as the City
In the 1980s her dad and I had a sailboat that we moored in Monroe Harbor in downtown Chicago. It was about an hour’s drive from where we lived in the suburbs to the harbor. Gina was so enthralled with the tall buildings, traffic and lights and just the size of it all. She started using the phrase “I love you as big as the city, Mom!” To this day we use that phrase. It just fits our relationship so well.
She followed in my footsteps of being a wife, mother, and teacher. When she had her second of three sons she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom like I had been so she left teaching and became a top 1% global influencer on social media. She has almost 90K followers on Facebook! Now that her boys are all in school she has started another career and is training to be a travel agent.
Life throws a curve ball
Unfortunately, she took this following in my footsteps a bit too seriously. Almost two years to the month that I was diagnosed with my breast cancer, Gina got the same diagnosis. I had a lumpectomy that did not require any treatment beyond a 5 year prescription for an estrogen blocker. However, my precious girl needed a mastectomy, heavy chemo, followed by radiation , an estrogen blocker, and a very painful reconstruction surgery. So what does a global influencer do? She becomes a PSA announcer for breast cancer screening and documents her journey online; she is responsible for countless women getting their annual mammograms; she posted photos, videos, and pics of her treatments, her hair loss, her choices of wigs…which are AWESOME….and her new short hairdo aka the singer Pink.
Truly my hero and Cancer warrior Princess
Today is Gina’s 48th birthday. And the daughter has become the wiser of the two in our relationship. She’s hilariously funny, remarkably kind, like a dog with a bone when she wants to do something, and the bravest person I know. Through all that she has endured since the discovery of her lump, there has not been one word of negativity. Never a whisper of ‘why me?” Never a complaint. She’s a person who focuses on all the good in her life and refuses to slip into self pity. It must be exhausting. From the outset, she has admitted to being scared but never a victim. Her closest utterance to a complaint was after the reconstruction surgery when she told me: Mom, it really hurts.” That’s IT! I’d be pissing and moaning and crabby as hell.
As modern communication changed to digital, she became a texter rather than one who likes to talk on the phone. So if I got 15 minutes on the phone with her I’d consider myself lucky that day. Her brothers are regular bucket mouths on the phone and we sometimes have conversations well over an hour. The first call I had with Gina after her diagnosis lasted almost an hour. When I told her we had been on the phone for over 50 minutes she says: “thank god for Cancer, eh Mom?” How do you not love that attitude?
My fun-loving Cancer Warrior Princess
Her favorite Role
It’s true that she’s an inspiration to thousands being a cancer warrior but her favorite role is being a mom. She takes her boys on adventures all around the area: water parks, zoos, weekends downtown, Millennium Park, apple picking, pumpkins patches, Leggoland, beaches, bike rides etc. She’s tireless. And her illness has not slowed her down except for the fatigue after a chemo treatment. Since she has become a mother she has become even more beautiful. Family life just suits her.
Many of my friends follow her online. People I barely know will come up to me to ask how she is doing. She’s inspiring to so many with her indomitable spirit. Saying I’m proud of her is inadequate.
Can you see why I love my Cancer Warrior Princess as ‘big as the city”? Wish her a Happy birthday with me.
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