(*NOTE-This is going to have to be serialized. I didn’t realize how long a tale I had to tell. The reasons for my title will be coming shortly.* )

Today, the strangest thing happened. It was just after midnight, and I saw a blog Vikki had written about the song “The Impossible Dream.” I commented that my mother had given me a music box many years ago that played that tune and it was very significant to me. Moments later it dawned on me-today would have been Mom’s birthday.

Mim (as I called her) would have been 62. She died 3 1/2 years ago at the age of 58, after breast cancer that I’m sure was caused by a leaky implant caused a very rare cancer that spread to her brain and spine-leptomenengial carcinamatosis. Yeah, not a word I could have ever spelled in school, but I sure learned it when she had it.

Her first bout with breast cancer was in ‘03, and at that time I was not scared or nervous, I just felt positive she was going to come through it-and she did. The doctor went ahead and rebuilt her breast, but then radiation burned the healing tissue and it had to be removed.

There were a few more surgeries-to get the implant removed, a stomach graft which became essentially a tummy tuck to get skin to rebuild the breast, to get it back in.

And things went fine for a while. I had moved from Chicago to SW Indiana and was finally getting life in order when my cell phone rings. It’s my mom and I can hear the strain in her voice. She had been having some dizzy spells and falling and some other issues, and after an MRI it was discovered she had cancer in her brain.