Sometimes life really, really, REALLY sucks. Nick Raitt, the son of my friend Lori Brower, passed away in Salt Lake City at 2:19 AM, Thursday, June 2. Nick fought cancer almost to a standstill for four years...he had a very rare type called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, which occurs in about 1% of all cancer patients. He was a patient of the same sarcoma specialist as my adopted sister, Lisa Buechler, which is how we got to know one another. When Lisa was dying, Lori and her friends Ruth Taillac, Jennie Magnesen and Denise Cummins (aka The Fairy Godmothers) were there for me 24/7 and I most certainly could not have survived the whole ordeal without them. They are a gift from God.
For those who are interested in learning a little more about rhabdo, here's a link to Nick's website, "My War With Cancer." http://nick-raitt.blogspot.com/ Reading it certainly has helped me to put MY problems into the proper perspective...Lisa only had rhabdo for less than a year before her death and Nick dealt with it for four years. I can't imagine going through all of that and not getting totally depressed, but he never quit. Not once.
Back to school tomorrow. I'm telling you, summer school is insane! In five short (and I do mean SHORT!) weeks we're covering the same amount of material that is normally covered in a full-length semester...oy. I'm very glad I chose to take just one class, as it's seriously kicking my butt...! I have an A at the present time, and if I can pull it together and write my 6 page paper in a somewhat coherent fashion, there's a good chance I may actually end up with an A. One can only hope. Anyway, just three weeks left and I can get my summer back. I am soooo looking forward to just existing...at least until August 29 when the fall semester starts back up! Both of my kids will be attending UAA with me, which will be fun. ;-)
