A doctor asked, “Should we treat cancer
like hurricanes or ice cubes?”
If the answer is ice cubes,
then we should treat it according to established protocols.
If the answer is hurricanes,
then we should treat it according to individual patients.
When cancer slammed into my mother in 1981
doctors followed the ice cube prescription.
Now they realize they have a hurricane
on their hands: Hurricane Merry Nell,
now in her 29th season.
She doesn’t waver, wane, or even slack off.
She can go one-day-at-a-time right into eternity
trusting her Heavenly Father to provide
her daily bread as if she were some frail bird,
rather than a raging force of nature.