Sometimes I don’t know if I should share certain personal stories on my blog, but I thought this one was worth posting, even if it touches just one person.
I had called my mom around 4pm, as I often do if I’m looking for her or to tell her I’ll be working late on edits. This call was different, I asked where she was and she said Popeyes Drive Thru. “What? What are you doing there”? was my first reaction. We never eat fast food, so when she said that I was confused. She then adds “We have Klein, we just picked him up to get him out for a while, we’re grabbing him something quick to eat”. Once again, I’m thinking huh? Her voice then begins to crack and she says “Shawn went to the Doctors this morning because he had a bump on his head and it’s a brain tumor”. She just broke down after the words came out of her mouth. I’m like What? Shawn Who? Cousin Shawn? Nothing was coming together in my head and the words didn’t even make sense that I was saying. After I talked to her for a few minutes, I hung up the phone. I sat there at my desk sobbing, barely catching my breathe. Randy walked in my office and didn’t know what to think. I explained and just said, “nothing matters!!” All this stuff that ruffles our feathers on a day to day to basis- nothing matters!! THIS is the stuff that matters, life matters, health matters! I just sat there in shock.
My cousin Shawn is my Dad’s Sisters son and they have always been close to us. He has a beautiful wife, Anayansi and they have a son named Klein who recently turned 3.
I sat at my desk and just tried to make sense of it all. It didn’t make sense. We heard the news last Wednesday, which was the day before Thanksgiving. So there were plans to celebrate and to get together as a family. Shawn’s mom, my Aunt Nancy had a fridge full of food ready to go for us all to get together Thanksgiving evening. Thanksgiving with the Amato/Konrads was put on hold. The food stayed in the fridge, the tables were put back up, the place settings went back in the cabinet. The day went by and we all just tried to keep our minds off of what was going on, we ate Thanksgiving at my Grandmothers house and later on went to visit Shawn at the hospital. His tumor removal surgery was scheduled for the following morning – Friday.
When I walked into the hospital with my mom Thanksgiving night, I had to keep from tearing up. Stay strong, stay strong, stay strong is what I kept repeating to myself. So we visited for a couple of hours and headed back home to get through the rest of Thanksgiving day. The day was long and I was tired and all I wanted to do was Pray. I curled up in my bed, lit my holy candle, prayed the rosary, and read passage after passage in the Bible until I fell asleep. I woke up in the morning with a full day of things to do, a family session to photograph, and my own birthday party to attend that was planned a month ago, but all I could think about what Shawn. I got dressed and stuck my rosary in my pocket. Throughout the day I would just reach my hand in my pocket, grab my rosary and think about him.
The hours passed and it seemed like Shawn had been in surgery all day. The tennis ball sized brain tumor that they removed was between his brain and skull. He made it out just fine, but now it was a waiting game. It seemed like all I’ve done for the past week is ask, “Did the results come in yet, did the results come in yet”? Well yesterday we received news that the tumor they removed was benign, meaning it LACKS all 3 properties of cancer. My heart sank, I was relieved. We were all relived.
God must have heard us talking to him, I will continue to be amazed by the power of prayer. This past Thanksgiving will be one to remember because it came a week late.
Shawn, I’m glad you are going to be okay- we all love you very much!
Here’s a picture I took of Shawn, Ana & Klein from a couple of years ago~
