No, I don't want to hear your "uplifting" stories

When people don’t know what to say about my mom’s cancer, they tell “uplifting” stories of how their daughter’s father’s best friend’s nephew was told he had such and such months to live, and then he lived ten years and is still going strong.

Though I understand how awkward this whole situation is to talk about, and though I know people are just trying to give us hope, those stories really aren’t helpful. More than anything, if I was to believe those stories, they would give me false hope. Yes, there is a possibility that my mom will live more than the year or so they expect her to. But if I hope for ten years instead of one, I’ll drive myself crazy, and fall even harder when she dies.

Instead, I’m happy to treat every day with her as sacred, in full knowledge that it may be my last day with her. And if she lives longer than we expect, then I’ll be thankful to have more sacred days with her. And when she dies, though my heart will break, and though my life will never be the same, and though I’ll be angry, and sad, and a thousand other emotions that words can’t express, I will know that my Jesus has her in his hands. And that is a hope that sustains, more than any uplifting story ever could.