In honor of my daughter

Three years ago I had just retired from a nursing career and found out I had breast cancer. I never asked why me because during my career I had seen so many people fighting cancer, I just felt now it’s my turn.

Two month later, however , I had just started chemo, and my world came crashing down on me. My 37 year old daughter, mother of three young children and also a nurse, was diagnosed with a glioblastoma.

It came out of nowhere. She haven’t been feeling well and I noticed a facial droop one day which lead to her diagnosis. Unfortunately, she only lived 10 days from the day she found out she had a brain tumor till the day she died. She had a biopsy and sadly passed three days later without being given any chance to fight it. The day she died we were going to get the results of the biopsy.

The only peace I have is knowing she didn’t know she had a glioblastoma and since she was a nurse she would have realized her really poor prognosis. I am so sorry we never got a chance to say goodbye to her and she to us and her children. We are all left with an emptiness that will never go away and a hatred of this miserable disease.

— Linda Taffner

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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.