What MLK Day means to me.

Yesterday so many people were enjoying a long weekend, thanks so an amazing man who changed our nation for the better, but when I think of MLK Day I think of 3 years ago. I was sitting in the waiting room of a small town quick care clinic while the doctors ran what seemed like a hundred different tests on my brother. Such random things like a back ache, vomiting, and frequent nose bleeds were worrisome, but nothing that horrible sprang to my mind. As the hours passed and I was still waiting, I tried not to really dwell on why it was taking so long.

Then off to the hospital we go for a CT scan, then back to the quick care for the results, then the words "I am so sorry, but you have cancer." How could my strong, healthy 19 year old brother have cancer? In many ways that was the worst day of my life, and in many ways it was the best. My family can never thank that doctor for being persistent in discovering what was wrong. The quick care is most often used by college students so would have been easy for her to have written him a prescription and sent him out the door, but she didn't. She gave him a chance at life.

MLK day means hope to me, but a different kind of hope than MLK preached. A hope for life. And every MLK I say a special prayer of thanks for that doctor. She gave my family so much as she got us going in the right direction for him to get well. Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. S for my cancer free brother. Max needs such an amazing man in his life and so do I!

Max is thankful for that doctor, too. Uncle N is one of his favorite people in the entire world and I have a feeling that he always will be.