I’ll never forget those early days of her first cancer diagnosis. It was an emotional time. Losing her hair wasn’t easy. It stripped away part of her identity, and she had to deal with the emotional weight that came with it. Still, Sunshine, always the fighter, did her best to embrace her new bald head. If I’m being honest, I actually liked the look, though I knew it was far from her favorite.
One Friday afternoon, as the sun hung low in the sky, we ventured outside to spend a few precious moments in her garden. Donna was an avid gardener, and these quiet times in the yard brought her peace, even if chemo kept her away from the sun most days. It was a delicate balance—finding moments when the sunlight was gentle enough that it wouldn’t hurt her skin, but still gave her that connection to nature she craved.
That day, as we sat outside, an idea popped into my head. “What if we used Henna to draw on your head?” I suggested, half-joking, half-serious. Normally, Sunshine was open to my wild ideas, but this one gave her pause. She was understandably nervous about trying something unfamiliar, especially after all her body had been through. If the chemicals in Henna altered her bloodwork, it could throw off her chemo schedule. So, after some back and forth, we settled on using a brown marker instead.
It was an odd situation, to say the least. Neither of us really knew how to feel about it, but here I was drawing squiggles on her head. The first strokes felt strange, but before long, we were both laughing. The absurdity of the moment broke the tension, and for a little while, the heaviness lifted. Sunshine looked at me with a grin, and we shared a simple, beautiful moment.
I think back on that day often. It was a reminder of how, even in the midst of hardship, Sunshine found ways to laugh, to embrace the weird and the wonderful, and to enjoy the moments. Those moments were everything. She wasn’t defined by her illness. Instead, she allowed herself to find the positive – even if they came in the way of brown squiggles.
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