“I have a husband and a son. My son needs care; I can’t fall into depression. I’m still a mom, and I’m still a wife,” said Laura Jaynes, who was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer almost two years ago in her early 40s.
Jaynes, who is currently under hospice care at home, gave an interview for the Shaping Families radio program in mid-January concerning her initial diagnosis of stage 4, triple negative breast cancer and her subsequent journey. Doctors say her cancer is not curable but she underwent various chemotherapies to slow the growth of tumors in her breast and liver.
After initial rage and brief depression, Jaynes, an elementary school teacher, says she spent little time asking the “why me?” questions. “The answer very quickly was obvious: why not me?” Laura reflected. “The world is full of suffering and obviously all of us are going to die. This is a condition of being alive. There are so many others in the world who deal with much greater suffering than I have experienced. It would be arrogant of me to assume that I should somehow be immune to this.”
Statistics from American Cancer Society indicate that for women from birth to age 39, one in 206 develops breast cancer; the figures go up to one in 17 getting breast cancer for women ages 40-60.
Laura’s now five-year-old son became her greatest focus while undergoing treatment. She took him along to some appointments and answered his questions with whatever he needed to know at the time, while trying not to overwhelm him.
The weekly 15-minute Shaping Families radio program airs each weekend on 16 local stations and online at www.ShapingFamilies.com. The show is produced by Third Way Media on behalf of Mennonite Churches through Mennonite Mission Network.
