What makes a day?

Today my neighbour lost his fight with cancer. He was diagnosed about a year and a bit ago, but unfortunately the treatment just hasn't been working its magic.  Today was also his birthday. Imagine that? Leaving this world the same day you were birthed into it.

I also wonder how his sons and wife are coping. I'm assuming sadness, because death is rarely glorious. I wonder if they feel relief? And then guilt for being relieved that it's over, there is no more treatment trials or super healthy diets. No more waking up and wondering if today is the day that he'll breathe his last breath. But then again, I suppose the pain of his death will only take over the old pain.

Yesterday I visited our local Ronald McDonald House . The lovely lady who showed us around shared a video about some of the families who have stayed or are staying in a Ronald McDonald House somewhere. One story that really struck a chord was that of a mother whose two year old son has a brain tumour. She made the comment about how one typical Saturday, after she'd noticed something wasn't right, she went in for a check up and that they'd been 'stuck here ever since'.

How funny/weird/odd that in a split second one typical, run-of-the-mill kind of day can be transformed into a date that will stay etched in your mind forever. Whether it be a death, a wedding, a birth, the day you took your son into the hospital and found out he had a brain tumour, anything...absolutely anything.