Moving back to normalcy

Tonight I had dinner with 8 of the 14 girls I went to grade school with. We went to a parochial grade school. When we graduated 8th grade we all went to various different high schools. Some of the women that I saw tonight I haven't seen in 51 years.

It was really great to catch up with these guys. Some of the women had some very very difficult lives. Two of them have disabled children that they're still caring for. Two of them are living and caring for their elderly parents. Of the nine women that were there, everybody had been married. Only three were still married to their original husbands. And two of us have been married and divorce twice. They all had careers in addition to being mom's and homemakers. That's the thing about my generation of women. We stood in the middle. We weren't the '50s wives and we weren't the wives of the 2000s. We had to bridge the gap and be both breadwinner and homemaker at the same time. We're awesome people aren't we.

I knew I was going to go to this reunion. But I was very self-conscious about my hair. I should say about the wig I was wearing. I don't think anybody notice that it was a wig. But when it was my turn to talk about my life. I shared nothing about my health struggles. I don't want to be known for that person who's sickly.

This was such a fun night. One woman brought the newsletter that was written by our class and another woman brought a photo album of us as children. I can't believe they hung on to all that stuff. I don't even have a pen that indicates where I went to school.

I think I'm starting to feel more normal. I'm 3 months post chemotherapy. I don't have any lingering side effects. My hair is growing in! In my heart I just know that I'm done with this cancer thing. I just know I'm done. I'm still on a maintenance program which is going to keep me focused on it for a while, but as long as I feel good I can feel like the future is bright.

Attached to the picture of those little girls who started kindergarten together 60 years ago.