A Child’s Heartbreak
A woman I know that is currently in treatment for breast cancer shared a story with me today that brought up so much pain — even tonight as I type I feel like weeping.
This woman’s young child recently said to her, ‘Mommy, God told me you’re going to be sick a long time.’ To that she explained that she would be sick for a long time, but she would get well eventually, and it wouldn’t feel quite so long looking back.
Then her child said, ‘God said I’m going to miss you.’
Of course, we were both crying as she uttered those words.
Nothing is worse than seeing your child in pain because of your illness. Nothing.
You know, when you have cancer, you can tell your child you aren’t going anywhere, that you’ll be okay, that it will get easier, but the truth is … you don’t know. You don’t know if your life will get cut short. You don’t know if your pain will lessen. All you can do is hope and pray and think positively. But your kids sense that you aren’t sure.
It is hard to talk to kids with real certainty when nothing is certain anymore.
We will never know if God really said these things to this child (He could have, for sure). We will never know if Satan muttered in that poor child’s ear (he could have, too, I suppose). We will never know if the child just said these things to see what kind of reaction the statements would elicit (that could be true, for sure).
When a parent has cancer, a child needs assurance and unfortunately, sometimes assurance isn’t easy to come by.
So … how would you help this child?
Leave a Reply