Stories From My Life #2

My Aunt Emily was my mother's closest sibling. Everyone said that she looked like Dinah Shore. I don't know about that, but she did have a thing for Burt Reynolds. I think all the women of that time had a thing for Burt Reynolds. She married young and divorced. I never knew her first husband. Then she married my Uncle Dave. He was a naval officer and was stationed in Millington, Tennessee. He was a naval fireman. Emily and Dave had two children together, my cousins Diane and David.

When Diane was in grade school and David was just a baby, Uncle Dave was sent to Saudi Arabia. They were stationed there for less than a year when my Aunt discovered that she had breast cancer. The Navy doctors did not raise any alarm bells, so they took their time moving back to the states.

Back home she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. The cancer had moved throughout her body. She died within a few months of their return. Uncle Dave and Diane then raised Baby David.

My uncle did find love again. Once both his children were grown he met a lovely woman and they moved to Florida and as far as I know they lived happily ever after.

I've heard through family members that my cousin Diane became a mud wrestler and married a woman. The sad part of Diane's story is one that I can totally relate to. She always had this fear of getting ovarian or breast cancer, like our mothers. We were always told that it was passed through generations. Diane had a hysterectomy and a mastectomy at quite a young age because she was so scared. I opted to pay for genetic testing when it became available to everyone in the 80's. I didn't have the BRCA gene, but I did end up getting ovarian cancer. Only through a very diligent gynecologist who watched me so closely that my cancer was caught in stage one. I had a hysterectomy and have not looked back.