A young woman looks back: losing her mother to breast cancer.

15 I n August 1997, the wonderful life my mother had worked so hard to make for us came to an abrupt halt. I distinctly remember the hot summer day when we were watching television and the telephone rang. It was the gynecologist my mom had worked with for 20 years asking her to come into the office to discuss the results of her mammogram. I can still recall the frightened look on my mother’s face and the suffocating feelings. I accompanied my mother and grandmother to see the physician and sat in the waiting room unable to focus on anything but the peach-colored walls, anxiously waiting for my mother, grandmother, and the doctor to come out of his office. I do not remember what I was thinking at only 11 years of age, but I know that what I was told shortly after was something I could never have imagined: My mom had breast cancer. I remember hearing “cancer” and feeling as though every bit of life within me was drained out. I always felt as though the bond my mother and I shared was deeper than the average mother and daughter. My father and my mother separated before I was born. My mom welcomed me, her only child, into the world without anyone else by her side. As a single mom, she worked very hard to provide what she felt was needed, always making time for us to spend together. She was always there for me. I could have never imagined my life without her. We lived with my grandmother, who looked after me while my mom went to work, and the three of us were inseparable. I remember, even as a young child, thinking about how lucky I was to have two strong and exemplary women in my life. I always looked up to my mother and admired the strength she possessed. She was a young adolescent when her parents immigrated to the United States from Costa Rica and she had to deal with coming to a new country, learning a new language, and adjusting to a new culture. She met this challenge and made all other obstacles she faced seem effortless. A Young Woman Looks Back: Losing Her Mother to Breast Cancer