Nelson C., WA

My Dad and I lost my mom to lung cancer. I really don’t remember my mother very much since I was only 7 when she passed away. I do remember bits and pieces but not a clear memory. What I do remember was what my life was like before she died, I remember she use to make me lunch, wake me up in the morning and either take me to school or walk me to the bus and give me a hug every day before school. When she was sick, I didn’t really know how sick she was, my dad tells me she sheltered me from the possibility of her dying.  So, when I came home from school on the day of her death and my dad told me she died my first reaction was: “What? We have no family?”, his response was: “We still have a family, you and I are a family.”  But the reality is that my experience of a family would never be the same. 

My life totally changed: My mom was no longer there to wake me up and make me breakfast or lunch. She wasn’t there to walk me to the bus or take me to school. I had to start doing those things myself.  Most of all my mom was no longer there to give me my morning hug or kiss me good night.
I’m reluctant to tell people at school that I don’t have a mother, because I don’t want them to think of me as different, but I am. When I spend the night at a friend's house, we wake up to a full table for breakfast and their mom is always there.  When friends stay at my house, my dad helps make us breakfast, but it’s not the same. 

We need more research for lung cancer. Maybe, if my mom had had an earlier diagnosis or better treatment, she may have been saved. It’s my hope that no one will ever have to experience what I’ve been through.