There are few things that will give you a new perspective like travelling abroad. That and almost losing someone you love.
I have just arrived back from two weeks in America sans husband and kids, with huge thanks to Piet and both sets of grandparents for making it possible.
One of my closest friends, Marie Morrison (nee Kuehl), recently won a five month battle against a rare and aggressive cancer: Burkitt’s Lymphoma.
While you are not ‘cured’ until five years cancer-free, the test results came back clear and we were celebrating.
The doctors told her that if the cancer does not return in the first year then it is unlikely to do so.
Marie had a roller-coaster ride with cancer, going from perfect health one month to some lower back pain and abdominal swelling the next.
Within days of seeing her first doctor she had had a full hysterectomy and was in hospital for six days every two weeks for intravenous chemotherapy.
This went on for five months.
The entire family are still recovering from the trauma.
Despite everything Marie’s faith did not waver.
The fingerprints of God’s care are all over her family, from the train of meal deliveries from families within her church to her parents uprooting themselves from their home in South Africa to rally around them.
Marie was my first contemporary to be diagnosed with cancer, and I expect she won’t be the last.
It was quite a shock.
Not only because she was such a close friend but because we are still so young.
While 34 is not really that young anymore I still feel 21 inside (I expect that if I am lucky enough to make it to 84 then I may have the same quandary).
Cancer is something I have never honestly considered for myself, despite my mom having bravely fought and survived breast cancer.
Funny how we all expect to live forever. Cancer is what happens to ‘other people’.
Only it isn’t.
Cancer is no respecter of persons.
Marie said that if walking the halls of the cancer hospital taught her one thing is that ‘this can happen to anyone’.
Watching a friend fight not only for her own life but for her children to have a mom was a humbling experience.
***
All the hysteria around the new super flu however, now that is getting out of hand. I believe you cannot buy hand sanitizer (and possibly bog roll) anywhere in town because of all the panic.
It is interesting to note how much of this behaviour is driven by fear and is largely irrational. According to medical science, thoroughly washing your hands with plain soap and water is better able to prevent the spread of infectious diseases than using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) you should wash your hands vigorously for at least 20 seconds several times a day, while the type of soap and temperature of the water are not important.
But it ain’t just Ballito moms who are bathing in the stuff because novelist Stephen King tweeted his own take on the problem a few days ago.
His Coronavirus meme is a play on his 1986 novel ‘It’, in which seven children are being terrorized by an evil clown named Pennywise.
In one of the most memorable scenes of the book, Pennywise draws the attention of Georgie, the younger brother of the protagonist of the book, with a paper boat made by him.
In the meme, Pennywise says “I got hand sanitizer down here” instead of the original line: “We all float down here”.
In Australia, aisles have been cleared of toilet paper, so much so that one chain enforced a four-pack buying limit and manufacturer of Kleenex toilet paper in Oz said it was now operating 24 hour production lines to meet demand.
The panic buying has been seen in Italy with pasta (now if that’s not a stereotype!) and in the US with hand sanitizer, and the list goes on.
I only wonder how those people who were germophobic before Coronavirus are coping.
I remember a new mom-to-be and her husband in my antenatal class.
I couldn’t help but notice that on our tour of the hospital they used every single one of the hand sanitizers we passed.
They must have sanitized 16 times before the tour was up.
They are probably busy digging their shelter to weather out the Apocalypse. If this is you: please don’t buy out the country’s supply of baked beans and toilet paper!
Leave something for the rest of us.
Download The North Coast Courier mobile app, now available free from the Apple iStore and on Google Play, for IOS and Android phones.
