Uncle Lefty...

My uncle has been fighting cancer for a long time. First prostate cancer, which he beat. Now it's in his esophagus, and we were told two years ago it's terminal. But the new chemo he's on has been WORKING, the cancer shrinking. He wasn't able to eat, so they put in a stint and he was able to EAT again. But then he got pneumonia. And the wonderful chemo destroyed his immune system, and my sweet uncle is tired of fighting. His body isn't absorbing nutrition, he has no antibodies to fight the infection, and he's going to die. I want to scream that it's not fair, but what good would that do? I can't get to New Jersey to see him or be there for the family because we just can't afford it. I know how horrible that sounds to people who don't understand. People who think "That's just selfish. Skip (insert whatever you think I waste my money on here) and go to your Uncle's funeral." Guess what? We're barely paying the bills. Sure I have a savings account, there's about $300 in there. Not enough to fly two people across the country, and leaving Mini Me behind is not an option because my husband works and there is no one to watch him. Sounds like a bunch of excuses, doesn't it? To me, too. One of my cousins texted me this "Are you booking a flight here?" I texted back: "I can't." She texts: "Why?" Really? What OTHER reason could there be? I'm just kind of rambling now, but it's OK because the only people who read this thing are friends...This picture is of us in Scotland: Uncle John, HIS Uncle Jim, Aunt Marianne (Uncle John's wife), my cousin Jeanine, and me. (I know we're listed in the pic, but we're all out of order in that list). The picture came from our family reunion website (yes, our family reunion was in Scotland, we're cool like that) and we were excited that someone put us up there! This was after one cancer and before the other. He wasn't sick, or he didn't KNOW he was sick. (Or maybe we just didn't know.)