Rosie, Cancer & Her Magic Balloons. This is the story of my best friend - Once upon a time there was a girl called Rosie, who had magic balloons. The balloons were shinny, bright and as light as air, and she would share these balloons with her friends, family and strangers. Rosie was what some would call a lucky girl she was young, beautiful, funny, intelligent, confident, kind, wise, understanding, brave, she had faith in life. She could appreciate and enjoy the things that were special in life, laughter respect for others and herself. She kept herself healthy, ran, didn't smoke, ate a healthy diet. Because of these shinny beautiful balloons she held and shared she was adored, earned respect from others, she was a leader. But then came something from out of the blue. CANCER STAGE III This was a life lesson she could do without. She took her bravery balloon and marched on. This was it then, it is what it is, she told herself bravery balloon in hand. Then towards the end of the chemo, she became fatigued, tired and lonely. Rosie found herself with some very different balloons, these were grey balloons, heavy balloons, different balloons, trauma, fear, sadness, no confidence, no faith, ugliness and she carried them around with her daily, she became familiar to their weight, she didn't recognize the person she had become, she couldn't let go of the grey balloons were all too heavy, she had been holding these balloons a long long time and with all these balloons crushing her she fell. Rosie wanted to run but she couldn't she was laying there struggling. But were these balloons telling her something? Then a friend noticed something there was a glimmer of a shiney balloon, a bravery balloon, the grey heavy balloon tried to bring her back to the floor, the fear balloon was covering her eyes, but the bravery balloon was shining so brightly. This balloon had never left Rosie and she held it. She began to crawl but the balance was uneven but crawl she did. Then another balloon appeared, substance, how did that get there or was it always there? And so the journey begins. If we return to the begining of the story Rosie is a leader, but what she doesn't realise yet there is a whole army behind her, they in their way have had cancer too. Rosie went to church, she wasn't overly religious, but went never the less. She had to fill her time. What did she see, she saw the acceptence balloon, but other people were holding it tightly, Rosie had a loose grip, she held it out for the other people but not for herself. And she met a friend, who was holding light shiney balloons too. She gave Rosie three of her balloons, encouragement, faith and kindness. Then Rosie went on her way. The bravery balloon took her to an art class, and Rosie painted a beautiful picture, everyone was amazed at what skill and talent she had what beautiful colours Rosie had choosen. But Rosie was holding two balloons, she couldn't accept the recognistion of what she had contributed to the painting, that was a grey heavy balloon. Rosie had to recognize her achiement because that balloon was indeed shining, just grab it her friends urged. This is an ongoing story, but just to add, the bravery balloon is there, the survivior balloon is there and these are shining with all their might. But will the greatest shinest balloons be the wisdom, the understanding and teaching balloon. To my dearest friend Love you always Marianne Xx
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