Thursday, October 17, 2013
If you could travel anywhere in time or space, either real or imagined, where would you go and why?
My Second Mother
She started out as a friend of my mother's, but she soon became my friend too. Tara Howard is a woman who is the most silly, inspirational, and strong person I have ever met and have grown to know and love. I met her at Stonegate Farm, where she was an essential member of the community and small family we built. We all would go out together as a group like a real family and advise and counsel each other like any family members would. She filled the roles of not only another mother, but a sister too with her silly pranks but also great life coaching. We even have a running joke that since my mother, Tara, and I are so close and go out all the time in Tara's blue Subaru that Tara was my second mother and I was an adopted child of "two moms". Almost eight years later it is still a running joke between us three when we snuggle together and pretend to be a legitimate family.
These memories have led me to dream about going back four and a half years ago before Tara was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer and have my thirteen year old self tell Tara to have a colonoscopy. Having her get a colonoscopy before the cancer had multiplied is something that I've dreamt for years on end thinking about the difference it would have made to our lives. I would never have to witness the hairless skin and bones, ghostly woman Tara become over for the past four and a half years. She would never have to have chemicals pumped into her body, she would never have had to quit riding, and she would never have had to experience the torment and ache she's had to deal with over the years. I picture her living happily with her husband Bob in Syracuse with her fluffy puppies running in the backyard and her horses accessible to ride daily. Maybe she would travel and see the world, rather than stare at the white hospital walls and smell the industrial scent of hospital disinfectant. She wouldn't be a prisoner of her own body.
I think back to four and a half years ago and although I had no idea what was to come, I wish I had a random hunch so I could save her. I have always wanted to be a doctor so I could improve the lives of others and cure them, so why not go back four and a half years and save a shining force in my life, beginning my journey to save lives and help others. Why not start with her?
