Lorraine June Stokes nee Hillman 1-6-1932 - 24-4-2009
My beautiful, wonderful mother would have turned 77 today, but we buried her a month ago today. She died of cancer in her sleep at the nursing home she had lived at since diagnosis nearly 9 years ago. She was luckier than most who suffer from this horrid disease. She didn't have chemotherapy at all, but did undergo several lots of radiotherapy. The cancer that finally took her began in an unknown location. By the time it was discovered, it was a secondary location that was found in her left lung. Surgery wasn't and option because of the threat of scar tissue closing off her remaining viable lung. So her specialist opted for radiotherapy. This treatment gave her another five years of her life. During that time she did many things that she wouldn't probably have otherwise done - she travelled around Australia by car & caravan with her friend Jenny and also enjoyed a trip to Canada and back via Singapore and Hong Kong. But two years ago when she was taken quite suddenly ill and was rushed to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with what was suspected to be a stroke of some sort, we discovered that the cancer had returned with a vengence. It had metastecised to her surviving lung, her remaining kidney, to her liver, to her spine and to her brain. Poor Mum. But up until the last month or so of her life, she was fortunate in that she didn't have a great deal of pain -or if she did, she didn't let on to anyone. She is gone now, to a better place. A place where there is no more suffering and pain. And today, when we remember her on her birthday, we choose to remember the mum without the cancer, the mum without pain and suffering. The mum who was there for each and every one of us when we needed her. The mum who never said anything was too hard. Bless you mum, and Happy Birthday. I can't share a birthday cake with you this year when my turn comes next week. But I did light a candle for you and it has burned all day long in your memory.
