Out of the Mouth of the Cancer Child's Siblings

My kids have a different way at looking at cancer than most kids.  Actually, most kids probably don't know much about cancer and that's really the way it should be.  My kids have been saying things now and then about cancer that I just keep meaning to write down because it's very interesting how they see things now.  I wish I could remember all the odd remarks they have made over the last "almost" 2 years.  These are some of the latest.

My 5 year old son said the other day, "I hope our next baby has cancer.  That way we can play in the big play room at Primary Children's." 

Um, yeah!  My son obviously does not get the picture of what cancer really is.  But, we are so grateful that he has come away from this experience without emotional scars from what we went through.  An extra reason we love Primary Children's is the Forever Young Zone on the 3rd floor.  The staff & volunteers there spent many hours playing with all of our kids either in the playroom or in Erin's room.  They were so kind to our kids and gave them extra special attention, after the months of being there, many of the workers there knew our kids names without us having to tell them."

Yesterday my almost 7 year old daughter said, "I am going to be a nurse when I grow up.  I want to work at Primary Children's Hospital with the cancer kids."  I responded, "You'd make a great nurse, but it would be really hard work because not all kids with cancer live and you'll have a lot of sad moments working there."  She said, "I still want to do it."  

I really think she'd be a remarkable nurse.  I'm not all doom and gloom, but I want her to know the reality that it's not going to be fun and games and that a lot of kids die of cancer.  There were many days there that I'd come out of Erin's room to find my nurse and several other nurses with tears in their eyes.  I always wondered who lost a child that day.