Page 77 - Reason To Sing by Kelita Haverland

Chapter Twelve

since Mommy found out she had cancer. She comes from a
small town called Nanton which is about 25 miles from us (on
the way to Calgary).
“Come and sit right down here, Vilda,” Sally gently half-
whispers in her cigarette voice. She carefully guides my mother
to the sofa, puffing up her pillows to make her comfortable.
“How does that feel? Too much or not enough? I can grab
another pillow, dear. Shall I do that for you?”
“No, this is great Sally. Thank you so much. I don’t know
what we’d do without you. The girls have told me they have just
loved having you take care of them while I’ve been away.
“I am just so happy that you’re home now, dear. I know
everything’s going to be just fine. Just fine.”
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not over yet.” Mommy sounds more
serious. “Now that this surgery has been done, I need to have
radiation and chemotherapy. If they don’t get it all, they’re
going to have to remove the other breast too.” She pauses as
we all stand shell-shocked, afraid to say a word. “The thing is
… Dr. Boyd can’t do anything more for me. Not here. He’s just
not experienced enough. There’s no way around it. I need to
have my treatments at a bigger hospital.” She leans back into
the pillows and closes her eyes.
To be honest, I don’t really understand all the stuff about
the cancer. But it sounds awful. My poor mother. I saw where
her operation was and it looks horrible. There’s a large bandage
covering most of it but I was able to see some stitches. There
are so many. She doesn’t really explain very much to Vian and
me. I have the feeling she really doesn’t want us to know what’s
going on. Probably because she doesn’t want us to worry.
I do understand that a bigger hospital means we’re going to
have to sell our ranch and find a new place to live in Calgary.
Just when I was getting used to being back in the country! At

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