Finishing the first round of chemotherapy was a momentous day for my husband. He hadn’t sailed right through it, but he has made it through with some good days and some bad days.
Many friends and relatives had contacted us to find out how it went, if he got sick, if he lacked energy and if he had experienced all of the usual maladies that afflict chemotherapy patients. In order to answer their queries but so as neither to bore them with minute details nor to speak negatively about the experience, I sat down and decided to write a short silly song describing the events of the past three weeks. When a dear friend expressed sympathy for us, I had quickly commented, “Some days are crappy and some days are happy,” and left it at that. When I began to tap into the creative part of my brain for words to rhyme with crappy and happy, they began to flow readily. This is the song that came together that day:
Chemotherapy Lamentations
Some days are crappy,
Some days are happy,
We have to be snappy
To turn crappy days to happy.
We learned that a nappy
Changes crappy to happy.
We wake from the nappy
A happy Mom and Pappy.
I sent emails and letters to the inquisitive friends and relatives quoting the newly written silly song, hoping to show the caring ones that it wasn’t a bed of roses, but that we had finished the first course of chemo in a good mood and with some humor.
The weekly Bible Study that I attend met the day before the beginning of the second course of chemo, and I felt that I needed to meet with my friends for encouragement and prayers. I needed an emotional boost as well as needing a few hours away from the cancer scene at home, though it had not been as depressing as I had anticipated it would be.
When we all gathered together, my friend Marcia commented on the song I had written and proceeded to tell us about an experience she had had that would blow our minds. The tale involved the fact that she had read to her husband the song I had written to fill him in on what was going on at the Allen household during the chemo adventure. Marcia told us that immediately after reading the song to her husband their phone rang and a friend related something that required Marcia to find a certain book. Marcia knew that she had the book but didn’t know exactly where she had put it. She looked in obvious places to no avail. For some reason the thought came to her mind to look in the drawers in the bureau in the dining room. She did and could not find the book in any of the logical places in the drawers.
She began to leaf through a plethora of greeting cards that she keeps on hand in one of the drawers to send to people, birthday cards, sympathy cards, friendship cards and others that fit many occasions.
Toward the bottom of the drawer her eyes fell upon the front of a card that she had no memory of buying. The front of the card showed a dog in a bent over position straining to release excrement. Then in the lower part of the front of the card it showed the same dog with a grin on his face and saying, “Smile.“
She opened the card and the inside inscription read, ”Better to be happy than crappy.”
Marcia knew immediately who should be the recipient of the card.
As normally happens at our weekly meetings, we all ended up laughing hysterically, knowing that the card was a confirmation from God to my husband and me, alerting us to the fact that keeping a happy attitude relieves the crappy days of depression.
We were all laughing at the anticipated reaction of my husband Steve, that he was going to think that the card added emphasis to the chemo song in a funny way. Were we ever wrong!
I rushed home and gave the card to Steve. He read it and was struck with awe at the miracle of the card, that Marcia had a card in her drawer at home that said the same thing that I had written in a silly song. All he could say was, “I’m in awe.”
I left home to go to the grocery store, anticipating the new and varied menu we would again have as his appetite came and went, ebbed and flowed for the next weeks. Driving in the car I was musing about his reaction to the card, which was not what we expected when the ladies sent it to him. Then the insight of God came to my mind. He said, “You didn’t know I was sending a message to him; did you?”
That insight deserved a big, “Wow,” from me, which is often an unusual exclamation of pr
aise to God that I find coming from my lips. Then I gave God another contemporary act of praise by asking Him, “How do you do that? How do you do these marvelous things for us?” I didn’t expect an answer because I know it already. It’s because he loves us so much.
aise to God that I find coming from my lips. Then I gave God another contemporary act of praise by asking Him, “How do you do that? How do you do these marvelous things for us?” I didn’t expect an answer because I know it already. It’s because he loves us so much. A miracle? Yes. Almost too astounding to believe.
A message? Yes. Steve told me that the next morning at the doctor’s office he told a lady who was receiving chemotherapy infusions at the same time, “You can either be crappy or you can be happy.’ I believe God got his message across.
I’m still thinking, “How did you do that, Father?” I’m not really asking to see the working behind the scenes of how it happened, I’m merely exclaiming my amazement that He is able to keep us in awe of His miraculous ways.
He never ceases to thrill us with the way He works. I just never expected Him to use a pooping dog, but He did and it got the message across.
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