Originally Posted by shrapnel


Armchair quarterbacking someone's life is as wrong as any other instance of speculation on circumstances that haven't been personally experienced. How do people die? How should they die? These are questions that only God can answer. If you don't believe in God, you have a different perspective. I will stick with a belief in God.

There is nothing to tear at your heart, as to have a conversation with your daughter that is battling cancer and have her tell you she doesn't want to die. Being afraid of dying is different. For years we talked about everything, death wasn't something we talked about, but as the years progressed we understood it could shorten her life, substantially.

She was a wonderful person, robbed of one of her most valuable possessions, time. There is nothing fair about cancer and to try and understand it from a human perspective is impossible. I believe in God and that His plan, though different than mine, is somehow better.

We didn't talk about a convenient time for her to end her life, we stood by her and hoped for any miracle that would save her. It never happened and I sat in a hospital room, holding her hand as she took her last breath and cried.

That has been almost 4 years ago, I still cry every day, there is nothing like the loss of a child.

I see two different philosophies here. Some of us want to have absolute control and try to compartmentalize our lives for some satisfaction of control and organization. To those who do that, I am not condemning them, but I feel a stronger association with God and that it isn't up to us to make our lives so convenient that we forget who we are and why we are here.

Cancer is a merciless killer and I can't understand it, I miss Paige every day...

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Schrapnel,

I was looking for the words to respond to this thread and you did a better job than I ever could have done. We lost our son and only child three years ago tomorrow, to cancer. He was 40 at the time of his passing. He was actually my step son but I never had any children of my own and he and I were very close.

Cancer is an insidious disease and nothing can prepare a family for its affect on their lives and the loss of a child to cancer is a blow no parent should suffer. God showed me a level of strength and faith in my wife I never would have seen otherwise. She was strong beyond anything I could have imagined. She and our daughter in law cared for him in his last days at home and both were with him when he passed. Etta's faith never wavered during this ordeal.

I spent some time mad at God for letting my wife suffer the loss of her child. But when we had his memorial service and I saw the number of people his life touched I realized he blessed a lot of lives and those lives blessed ours in our grief. Thanks Schrapnel for sharing.

Mart


Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.