10/19/2023

Letter of the Heart

Cancer has been the worst – and best – thing that’s ever happened to me.

How is it that a disease that causes so much pain and suffering can be good in any way, let alone the best thing that’s ever happened to you?

When I was in middle school, I remember being sat down by my parents the night they told my siblings and me that our mom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Truthfully, I didn’t really understand what the disease was. All I knew was that it was bad from my grandmother’s cancer treatments. I didn’t know if she could get past it easily, whether she would get really sick, or the worst thought in the world: could she die?

After my parents explained her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, I walked back to my room. I didn’t know how it happened, but as I was sitting in silence on my bed, I started talking to God. I talked to Him like I was talking to a friend – as if God was sitting in the room with me. I asked Him to make sure my mom would be okay and promised I would spend every day moving forward trying to be the best person I could in return.

I chose to take the absolute worst thing that had happened in my life up to that point and let it positively change me.

- Nicholas Montani