Shattered Appearances ✓

t h i r t y - t w o: Live Life Like There's No Tomorrow

A/N: this is a mini chapter dedicated to my father who died of cancer a year and a half ago. Tomorrow is his birthday and this is a tribute to him. A regular full length chapter will be out on Sunday October 9, 2016. This chapter will be a small foreshadow of events to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cancer cells could be described like humans in some ways.

Both of us are alive and want to survive. We both multiply and eat and do many things in between. While we kill animals to eat, they kill the human it lives in. It just doesn't know that once its host dies, it'll die too.

My mother died of cancer a year ago and my life shattered to pieces, more so than ever before. Then my sister got cancer. Stephanie Newman. One of the only people who I could have counted on had cancer. Yes, I still had my dad and Lucy, and Bryson for that matter, but I couldn't bear to lose another family member.

For a while, things started to get better. Stephanie might have lost her hair, which resulted in her having to shave it, but things were going great. Her cancer apparently subsided and maybe soon, she would be cancer free.

Or so I thought.

Two days before my birthday, two days before I turned eighteen, I discovered her cancer had gotten worse. Not only was it stage three now but it had spread to other parts of her reproductive system.

Her supposedly "aggressive but easily manageable" tumor had gotten worse and I didn't know what to think.

Cancer kills lives everyday and I have to deal with my losses. My mother may have been dead but I refuse to deal with another loss. With more grief.

It's incredible how what once started out as one tiny cell could turn into a fatal tumor that killed my mother and what could eventually kill my sister.

Stephanie could be considered incredibly brave. We both went through our trauma, with broken hearts and everything in between but she still remained strong. She kind of reminded me of my mother in that sense. She never let her cancer get to her and instead lived life to the fullest. My sister had the same mindset in mind.

So that's why, on my eighteenth birthday, Stephanie and my friends gave me the greatest surprise of my life that I'll remember forever. That day, I fell in love and realized who my true friends were.

That day was when my broken pieces started to heal once again.

This, my dear sister is dedicated to you. Thank you for all that you give me and I hope that I could be just as brave and kind that you are. Never lose hope because you'll beat this cancer. Instead have fun and live life like there's no tomorrow.

Love,
Your favorite sister,
Zoey Newman.