Tracie Fights Back

I'm losing my hero.

Dear Elizabeth Edwards:

We don’t know each other but I have felt a kindred connection to you even before my breast cancer diagnosis.

You live in Chapel Hill, N.C., and I spent four wonderful years there. We both were betrayed by cheating cads when we most needed support from someone to whom we had given so much of ourselves.

Then when I was diagnosed with breast cancer (on the day Lynn Redgrave died from it, no less), you were my inspiration. Someone who it seemed had managed to contain it with the best care your money could buy.

After all you went through, I thought you were invincible. I guess maybe I hoped you were because that offered hope to the rest of us, too.

The news yesterday that doctors said you no longer would benefit from further treatment settled over me like a dark cloud. I’m sorry for you and I’m sorry for those of us who want everyone, especially you public figures who become a part of our societal reality, to beat this disease.

When rich and famous people succumb, I sometimes wonder what chance the rest of us have.

I think my breast cancer was caught earlier than yours, though I have googled unable to find an answer to that worry.

Most people only care that you have breast cancer. For those of us fighting it, we want to know what kind — is it hormonal receptive, is it HER2 positive, in what stage was it caught?

In other words, are we in the same boat as you?

I know deep down that not everyone dies from this disease when one considers the many forms in which it comes. In fact, most people don’t. However today I just don’t feel it.

I’m sorry it’s you, who has given hope to so many of us.

Life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. Though, like you, I’ve found that the new path can lead to even more exciting places.

I find some solace that you are leaving this Earth beloved by so many.

But mostly I’m sad and angry. Sad that breast cancer will claim you. And angry that cancer continues to kill while our country pours its’ resources into fighting the wrong enemies.

Your admirer,
Tracie

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