I spent many days confused, disoriented, in a spiritual and emotional fog. I kept asking myself in an infinite variety of ways, ‘Why Me?’ One day, out the blue, I asked myself ‘Why Not Me?’ The second question was the beginning of my healing.

One of the best ways I was supported was to meet weekly for lunch with a man from Stephen Ministry, a Christian one-to-one lay care giving organization that is in churches throughout the United States (and perhaps in other countries as well).

For a year, this man (who had survived bladder cancer)and I met and talked. Rather, I mostly talked and he mostly listened–attentively, caringly, and undertandingly. It helped to lift the weight I felt, the burden I bore, the fear I felt.

I have been cancer-free for over 3 years. Having cancer may go away, but having had cancer does not. I am still paying attention to cancer’s lessons in my life. It has given me a new spiritual perspective and a new understanding of God.

The support of this man, who acted as a neighbor to me and as his brother’s keeper, was instrumental in my emotional and spiritual recovery from cancer.

A Swedish proverb has it that sorrow shared is halved and joy shared is doubled. I bear witness to that truth.