Still Me By Rashmi

Years ago, a close friend’s mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

A few years later, it came back.

I remember talking to my own mum about it. We both felt sad for her. We assumed she didn’t have much time left.

My mum, on the other hand, was full of life. She laughed easily, loved deeply and seemed the picture of good health.

Then life did what life sometimes does.

My mum died suddenly in a tragic accident.

My friend’s mum lived for another four years.

That experience has never left me.

In one heartbreaking moment, everything I thought I knew about certainty disappeared.

From that day on, I became a little wary whenever people spoke as though tomorrow was guaranteed—or impossible.

The truth is none of us really knows.

Years later, when I was diagnosed with cancer myself, that lesson came back to me.

Of course, doctors have knowledge, experience and statistics. They guide us, support us and give us the very best chance. But medicine isn’t fortune-telling.

Statistics tell the story of thousands of people.

They don’t tell the story of one.

They don’t tell yours.

Or mine.

We spend so much time trying to predict tomorrow, but the truth is… none of us can.

Cancer doesn’t know.

Doctors don’t know everything.

Neither do we.

That doesn’t mean we stop living

It simply means we keep planning holidays, celebrating birthdays, and making memories.

It means we make today count.

I believe miracles happen every day.

Sometimes they’re dramatic.

More often, they’re wonderfully ordinary.

A scan that brings good news.

A meal around the table.

A phone call from a friend.

A walk in the sunshine.

A laugh that catches you completely by surprise.

When life hands us adversity, we do the best we can with what we’ve been given.

We take the treatment.

We ask the questions.

We lean on the people who love us.

We keep hoping.

And then we leave room for serendipity.

Because life has a remarkable way of surprising us.

Sometimes in heartbreaking ways.

Sometimes in beautiful ones.

None of us is promised tomorrow.

But neither are we promised the worst.

That’s why I choose hope.

Not because I know what tomorrow holds.

But because none of us really does.