My Hero

Earlier this morning, I made a posting about American Idol. Well, a little while after I posted, I was going about my day at work and it was one of those days where I got everything in at once and the pile was so high on my desk.....I started freaking out. I went into my supervisor's office and laid out my concerns for a list of priorities. As we are talking, a co-worker of ours comes in and we all start talking about her health.

This particular co-worker of ours was out of the office for the past 6 months literally fighting for her life. She has a form of the big "C" word. I don't even like to look at the word, let alone type it out as my Grandmother passed away from it back in 1992. She was my heart. I loved her more than anything.

Anyway, our co-worker started telling us about undergoing radical chemo, in and out of the hospital, all of the meds and side effects and I am watching her the whole time and she has this look on her face like she was talking about someone else. I turned to her and told her she was my hero. She has been through so much and she is still not fully out of the woods, but she has such a positive attitude. She looks GREAT! She has always been one of those people that always brighten up the room when they walk in, so you can imagine what it was like not to see her for 6 months...wondering how she was and if she was ever going to come back to work. We all hoped and prayed. Everyday I walked past her empty, dark office, I would think of her and hoped that she was hanging in there.....and she was. This woman is amazing! As soon as she walked out of that office, I took a moment and cried. I didn't want her to see the emotion after all she has been through, but it washed over me and I finally realized that life is really precious. I know we hear it all the time and we vow to stop and smell the roses and then we go on with our everyday life and take simple things for granted....walking, breathing, hearing, seeing.....

Just this morning, I was blabbering on and on how "The Kid" should be kicked off of American Idol and complaining about my work load and she walks into that office, tells us what she has been through and suddenly none of it mattered anymore. I didn't care if Sanjaya stayed or left American Idol and quit thinking about a 'conspiracy theory', I didn't care about my workload.....I watched her walk away from that office this morning and realized I know someone who beat the odds, but is still in for the fight of her life and she is going to be just fine.

You truly are My Hero.