Faith over Fear

Our story begins with two late nights and a series of misdiagnoses. In April, my mother, “Moe,” began telling us she had a constant headache. After an ER visit, the doctor diagnosed her with a sinus infection. The headache still remained. Another trip to the doctor resulted in nothing. A third and final visit to the ER found that she had a mass on her brain and she immediately underwent further testing.

This series of events brings us to our first late night. My brother, Troy, and I realized something was wrong and we came home from work and waited for my father to return home from the hospital. Our worst fears came true when our father told us it was cancer.

Doctors were concerned and scheduled an immediate surgery to remove the tumor. Waiting for that surgery felt like an eternity. The only thing keeping us going that day was the revolving door of visitors from family and friends ready to begin this fight. My mother went in for her surgery and a few hours later her soft-spoken neurosurgeon pulled us in a private room to mark late night number two. He said with a quiet voice the evil living in our mother’s brain was glioblastoma.

From that point, everything we did was to make sure we beat this awful disease. Our determination and fight was no match to GBM. We had an army of support behind our Moe. The odds were not in our favor, but that didn’t matter. Her life was marked by insurmountable odds and each time she overcame them better and stronger. She was a fighter her whole life and this was just the next obstacle. We never flinched in our battle. We reminded ourselves constantly that we needed to have faith over fear.

Unfortunately, 30 days after her diagnosis, Moe’s battle against GBM ended too soon and she entered Heaven’s Gates. Her life was marked by the love and compassion she had for each person she met. Our fight continues so we can share her legacy with even more people and to find a cure for this terrible and tragic disease. We envision a world where no family has to go thru what we did. We #FightforMoe

— Shawn Carey

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Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.