Hard things

 If you follow Nika’s This Life Rocks FB or IG, these rocks are familiar to you. This is the one she gave her dad the day after his diagnosis. He kept it in his pocket and now it’s in his hospital room.

You were MADE to do hard things.

We used to use this phrase to help Neeks battle her SM. We’d remind her that she didn’t come from a family of quitters. She had a great grandfather who stormed the beaches at Normandy; two grandfathers who served active duty in Vietnam and WW2; a grandma who’d battled through cancer; a dad who’d relearned to walk; a grandmother widowed in WW 2 who went full Rosie The Riveter to support her young family; relatives who survived a trip on the Mayflower; and uncle on active police duty during the Manson Family saga; relatives who’d fled antisemitism in Europe. If this is her heritage, she can fight too.

Forging ahead is in our DNA.

And now is the time for her parents to buck up and prove we meant it.

For Rico it has meant learning to take a few steps with two compromised legs; vision therapy; cognitive therapy; learning new ways to dress himself; trying to rest; and living with  the fear that accompanies the words “incurable” and “brain cancer”.

For me it means helping him relearn some life skills without trying to do too much for him; trying to figure out how to restyle our home to make it more accessible; trying to homeschool a fifth grader; daily trips to Rochester; meeting with oncology, PT, OT, and the neuro teams; and living with the fear that accompanies the words “incurable” and “brain cancer”.

For our kids, they continue to soldier on. The emotional battle is deep, real and at times completely overwhelming. Sometimes we just hold each other and cry. But they are brave and resilient - it’s in their DNA too. Jason is here for another day, Rico’s sister and niece are here from NY as well. We are covering him in all the love we have. (In case you’re wondering, it’s a lot).