Those were very wise words I heard this very day! I was at my hairdresser this morning and in walked a very striking looking man, he was tall and thin, with a head of beautiful pure white hair and a big smile on his face. I guessed him to be about sixty years old. He boomed, "Good morning, ladies!" He had an appointment with Bernard, the only male hairdresser in the salon. Bernard wasn't ready for him, so he sat in the front room with myself, my grandson Jayden, my hairdresser Elisabeth, her helper Cetta, and few other patrons. The man asked Cetta how her husband was (a question I had asked her when I came through the door earlier), Cetta's husband had pancreatic cancer and over six months ago he was given only six months to live. I remember the day she told me that news with tears streaming down her face. I really didn't know what to say. I asked her if she had Faith in God and when she said yes, I said to her, "Well, that doctor is not God. Only God is the Author of life." She got very quiet after that and when I was leaving she thanked me and told me that she was going to tell her husband what I had said. At my last hair appointment Cetta said her husband was not doing well at all, he had lost almost two hundred pounds and he was wasting away, but she said they both still held out hope and they were hanging onto the fact that God Is the Author of life. I wished them both well and kept them in my prayers, I prayed that they could both find peace with whatever God had Planned for them.
This morning when I came in I asked Cetta how she was, she sounded tired and just said, "I'm doing alright." I was almost afraid to ask about her husband, and when I did, she looked at me and said, "Oh, you haven't heard?" I shook my head no, and tears came to her eyes and she leaned over and whispered, almost as if she were whispering a prayer, "The cancer is gone."
Then it was my turn for tears to come to my eyes. She came over and hugged me and said, "God Is Good, and you were right."
The man that asked Cetta about her husband was overjoyed too, he kept saying over and over again, "That's wonderful! That's wonderful! I'm so happy for him!" And then he told us that he too had cancer and he was undergoing chemotherapy. He said when the doctor told him about the cancer his response was, "Just tell me what it is so I can deal with it and get on with my life. I don't have time for this." And then he went on to tell us a little bit about his life, his marriage, children, grandchildren, and how he had survived a couple of wars, and he had survived a couple of bouts with cancer, and then he told us that he was eighty years old!!! I was stunned! He looked wonderful, and so happy, and so full of life, and so, so grateful!
He also said he liked being on chemotherapy because he was a 'clothes horse' and he loved that his clothes were now fitting him again! He said he needed to lose a little weight anyway!
And he told us that this latest bout of cancer was "just a blip on the screen"! And then he went on to tell us all the things he was looking forward to, all that he had planned for this Spring and Summer, he said that he was happy that the beaches were opening tomorrow and he'd be walking them every other day, and swimming, and he's going back to boxing with his mates a few nights a week to keep in shape!
The man's attitude was infectious, and we all smiled at his enthusiasm for life. I hope I can adopt this outlook on life, and the next time there's a blip on the screen of my life I hope I remember "to deal with it so I can get on with my life"!
(Is this when we let Ray cut our hair?! Tom has nicer hair than we do!)
(Is this when we let Ray cut our hair?! Tom has nicer hair than we do!)
