Tommy Usdin

When my mother contracted cancer a number of years ago, we were embarking on a journey that was unfamiliar to all of us. Everybody in the immediate family yearned to provide support that would take her pain and, by some miracle, her sickness away. She had always occupied the nurturing role for all of us. In the end, it did not work out that any of us could give her any more than our full love and devotion. She, for her part, gave us one last point of pride in the way she handled her illness. She exhibited courage and appreciation for all her gifts throughout her life and with no resentment that she had been confronted with the thin reed that seperates us all from sickness and health.