A Son Keeps Watch Over His Dying Mother

Paul Svejda is a successful businessman with his hands in several lucrative projects. To the outside world he may seem to be a man living on the sunny side of the street, working to keep his rising star going in an upward arc. While all that is true, it does not take into account the heartbreak he lives with daily as he watches his mother fight a losing battle with cancer. Cancer, where ever it strikes and in what ever form it takes, is a disease that affects families, not just the patient. It is an all-consuming illness that is often relentless when all treatment methods have been tried and failed.

When Paul Svejda realized his mother was suffering with cancer, he, like any of us, thought his pain and grief were beyond compare. He fought beside her as she battled through recommended treatments and remedies, hoping for a medical break, helping wherever he could, and wishing for a miracle. The time came when the doctors could offer no more hope. He had to accept the fact that his mother's cancer was terminal. That is a harsh reality that has no soft edges, no degree of comfort for patient or family, no rest from the relentless war the disease wages against a body grown frail from both the disease and the efforts to fight it.

As the cancer has spread to her liver, it has taken its toll on his mother's physical resources. And the disease has taken its toll on Paul Svejda as well. There is no easy way to watch someone you love suffer. There is no painless way to deal with the reality of losing someone so very dear to you. Any one who has lost a loved one to a dreaded disease or is now in the midst of that battle understands the the pain and suffering of not just the patient but the family as well. If he could take the pain and suffering off of her frail shoulders for just a while, it would not be more than a son would be willing to do for his mother.

One day soon Paul Svejda will lose his mother to the cancer. Her heroic battle will be at an end and he can take comfort from the things that will be left behind. His love for her and her love for him will be everlasting. His steadfastness by her side will be something he will take comfort in and hold dear. His devotion to her in life will heal him as he deals with her death.