Celebrations

Last night, I went to a party with my family. My husband wanted us to go because this couple is someone they knew and they were celebrating a ton of things. In fact, they were celebrating an engagement, the woman in this couple was celebrating her birthday and this same woman was celebrating that she was now cancer free. For a young 29 year old woman, she basically had a huge shock finding out she had it...then went through chemo...and then had her lung punctured 5 times while in the hospital for treatment.

Not sure about you, but these are amazing reasons to celebrate!!! So I went because my husband wanted me to go. I also wanted to celebrate all these wonderful milestones that this couple was celebrating. But part of me didn't want to go because I didn't know anything about this couple, nothing about their friends, knew 1 other couple at this party (my brother in law and sister in law)....and that was it. Going to a party where I basically don't know a soul is a bit daunting for me.

But I kept saying to myself that this party had nothing to do with me. It was about being there for this couple. Put my "hey, nice to meet you face" on and went to this party.

I am so happy that I went! When I met the woman who we were all celebrating, I congratulated her on all the different things I needed to congratulate her on. We had a quick chat...but I was so moved by her spirit, her courage and her zest that I was tearing up when chatting with her. I finally met her fiance and had a great chat with him. One of things we chatted about was being the bystander while your loved one is going through treatment/illness. The difficulty in balancing everything, ensuring that your partner is getting what they need, keeping things normal for your kids, etc. It's a huge responsibility and it's taxing. But he made it and I see that he is also a survivor.

The rest of the people there were just as amazing and fun to talk to. I actually didn't want to leave the party! Yeah...it was that much fun with strangers!

So in the end, really glad I went. Great conversations, met great people. And most importantly, was there to celebrate some great milestones for this couple. Love it!