The James T. Graham, Jr. Memorial Partnership with Community
“The Fight Against Cancer"
How I Became Involved
I will never forget the day I learned the diagnosis of my father’s cancer. It was a Monday. My father had called me on that prior Thursday from my parents’ home in New Jersey. I remember his words so clearly, “I need you to come home bud, mom is in the hospital (she was having complications from gall bladder surgery) and I’m not doing too well either. We have a doctor’s appointment on Monday and I need you to be there.” “ Of course I will come home, Dad. Is everything okay?,” I asked. “Yes it is. Everything is fine,” he replied. Needless to say, I was concerned.
I booked a plane ticket home and arrived that Sunday.
The following day we went to our family physician. The doctor walked in. Moments later my father said, “So Doc, the specialist found some kind of a lesion on my femur.” I almost threw up on the floor. I was in total shock; sheer panic ran through my body. I did not understand what I just heard. At that moment our battle with cancer began.
We all wondered how this could happen to someone who was so healthy; a person who ate right, who exercised and did not smoke. We were all in shock.
The next few days were filled with doctors' office visits. We saw specialist after specialist until we found ourselves at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City. That Friday my father had emergency hip replacement surgery to remove the cancerous lesion that had metastasized from his lung to his bones. We were very worried about the severity of this situation.
I would travel from Los Angeles to New Jersey every month thereafter to spend ten days with him. Those months were painful for him physically, and mentally and emotionally painful for all of us.
The passage of time did not promise us any relief. In his final weeks Dad’s condition worsened by the day. His treatments had stopped working, his blood transfusions were no longer holding and doctors could not promise him a tomorrow.
We always felt that each new day was another day of hope. Eventually the days ran out, and at that point, so did hope of his recovery. We were all by Dad’s side when he passed away on September 20, 2007. It was so painful to see him slip away. He was with us breathing one minute then gone the next. Life is so fragile. Precious.
My father’s battle with cancer is over. However, my family's battle lives on in our hearts and in our minds forever. We miss you, Dad.