The room was silent; all I could see was the sight of my crying family, like water falling from the heavens above. I recall when I first heard the abhorrent news: my mother was ill with breast cancer. I, Kyle Cardinal was three years old, when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, at first I didn't know what breast cancer was, but by the age of four I knew for a fact that cancer is a terrible, and vile, and horrible disease; because it took my dearest mothers life.

My mother was not frightened to leave earth and walk up the glimmering stairs to a wonderful kingdom called heaven, where the streets are paved with gold and everything is filled with elation, no sin, and perfection. The only thing my mother wanted to do before she walked up those stairs was to take care of my baby sister and I. My mother was one of the bravest and prudent people I have ever known. Once the poison we call cancer was circulating through her body and would not abscond, she knew that she was not going to live, so my mother tried to avail herself in every way she could before she deceased away from planet earth.

Once my mother started chemotherapy she lost all of her hair because of the radiation. My mother was also very weak and not as mobile as she used to be before taking chemotherapy. The hospital, after awhile, brought a satisfactory bed for her to sleep in at our old house in Snohomish. My mother would lay in bed and sleep, read, watch TV and write my dad, sister and I farewell letters. My mother lost her appetite for juicy ribs and the irresistible salads she used to make. The clatter of the crunching, and munching, and smacking, and chomping had to be taunting to her. My mother had become more enervated as the days went by, like a bird flying for weeks on end; non stop; soaring for its destination.

My mother conclusively got to the point where she didn’t want to get up. The mephitic poison was taking over her body, and she was ready to vacate out of here. One black night my mother had passed on; I stayed with her for the moment of truth, and that moment of truth was she would no longer be in my life, but always in my heart. My whole family was there, crying in desperation for my mother to come back, but we knew that the cancer had taken her; she was gone.

Those people took my mother out of the house and into a car, as they drove off. I was marooned at the doorstep with my Dad and my little sister. My mother was cremated, my family decided to put her ashes in our cabin's front yard, and in a creek by our cabin as well. I was left without a mother for the time being; but I knew she wanted the misery to stop. Now my mother is in a better place and I know she is in great hands.

Kyle Cardinal