Second chemo yesterday. Sitting in the Beatson Cafe yesterday we met a Milngavie man and his wife. He is waiting for a rehabilitation place in St Margaret’s Hospice. Four people with different lives but bound together by cancer. It made me think of John Green’s book later made into a movie, ‘The Fault In Our Stars’. It’s the story of two teenagers, Hazel and Augustus, who come together through their common experience of cancer. Hazel describes themselves as citizens in ‘the Republic of Cancervania.‘ It’s like that. When you are in the Beatson so many people pass you by. You don’t know them, perhaps will never see them again, but you have this disease in common.
In the lift yesterday there was a young man in a wheelchair with a line in his nose. Obviously receiving intensive chemotherapy. His carer asked me if it was still raining outside. I said: ‘You know, I couldn’t tell you. I’m a bit spaced out.‘ The young man smiled and said: ‘I know how you feel.’
Someone I don’t know, perhaps will never see again, but in that moment a bond. Strangely, it brought a flicker of reassurance. It made me think of Someone I know who knows me and what I am going through and can provide me with everything needful for this time:
‘Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.’ Hebrews 4: 14-16.
