Listening to NPR Story of the Day podcast today, I heard the story of Stewart Selman and was so glad to hear such an intimate recolection of someone else’s battle with cancer. While my father’s struggle with brain cancer did not involve the emotional breakdown’s mentioned in the story (at least I do not remember any), I can remember being frightened by the siezures much like the children in the story were frightened by their father’s outbursts.
At one point in the story Stewart reflects on his diagnosis:
I suppose it’s not possible to understand that thinking without being in the situation, but I’m just not sure that I would ever be able to so calmly accept the fate which a brain cancer diagnosis carried with it. I still don’t accept the fate my father was victim to in the same situation. I’m still angry that I was cheated out of a father. I see movies with a loving dad and I am upset that I don’t have someone to interact with that way today. The anger is irrational because there is nothing and noone at whom to direct that anger, but it is there all the same. I can only imagine how I would react if instead of my dad, it were now me (with children) receiving the diagnosis.
