What Did You Complain About Today?

Glenn and Carrie’s house was a modest Midwest/Ohio/small town home. One story with the garage attached on the left side, 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and a stench of beer and cigarette smoke constantly permeating from your surroundings.

The best part about their home, was that instead of the road connecting out to State Route 13, it instead bent around their home, almost purposely, avoiding the highway adjacent to the cornfields and turning back into Mermary Drive, making it the perfect “in-town” home, yet with little-to-no “traffic.”

Since Glenn was going for a chemo treatment at the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio (a good hour-long drive south from Fredericktown) we decided it was a good time for us all to go together.

Unfortunately, my brother hated attention and knew exactly what was being said when the entire family wanted to attend a chemotherapy session… we were savoring every last moment with him.

I walked in, flanked by my mother and father. When Glenn saw the whole crew, you would’ve thought the District Attorney’s office was coming to drag him away for life in prison.

“What the hell are you all doing???? I’m not dead, everyone doesn’t need to go!!!” Glenn exclaimed. His temper had not been hampered by the chemo.

Nothing sucks worse than the awful images that get burned into your head with cancer. I have a lot with my brother, as we battled Pancreatic Cancer for 18 months, but this one is probably the worst of them all.

Glenn and Carrie’s bedroom was in the back corner of the house and he quickly retreated here after cursing us all out.

He forgot to slam the door shut and instead it hung wide-open.

One of my lasting images of my cancer-stricken brother is him crying uncontrollably into the palms of his hands, with his back straight and his face covered. Weeping into his wife Carrie’s arms, while mom, dad and I watched helplessly.

The guy I looked up to since I was a kid who was flawless…. Now had cancer, radiation and chemotherapy running throughout his body.

On top of all of that, he was dying of cancer right before us.

Not only were these things stacked against him, he now had all of the people who loved him most, watching him cry uncontrollably.

His wife. His son. His only brother and his mother and father. All of us were watching as Carrie held him tight, as he wept uncontrollably into his hands.

Anytime I think life is unfair… I quickly go to this image burning in my head. As I say often times in my life, as I compare my brother’s situation to my own… is this, crying-uncontrollably-with-cancer-radiation-and-chemotherapy-running-through-my-body-as-everyone-that-loves-me-watches, bad?

No. It’s not.