My children attend a private Christian school and we are members of the church that is affiliated with the school. Close community to say the least. One of our mothers, Jeanne, died last May of ovarian cancer. She was in her mid 40's and she and her husband have 4 beautiful children, 2 boys and 2 girls. She died one month before her oldest, a son, graduated. Her youngest is in my 9th grade daughters class. She fought this cancer for 5 years, opening her house to the kids when she was home and healthy for study nights or just to have fun. Even when she got to sick to go upstairs and they brought a hospital bed in and put it in the living room, she still had the kids over, and they would simply sit around the bed or even on it with her. This was a loved woman who also lost her mother when she was 17, to the same ovarian cancer. She knew how to help her children lose her, as she had been through it herself.
One time that she was in the hospital, she quietly said that she would give anything to be at home, on her hands and knees, washing her kitchen floor while the kids did their thing and her husband watched TV. That has always stuck with me. I have never, ever bitched about washing my floors again...........and I do it on my knees, throwing a hello Jeannes way each time.