Your breasts are like twin fawns,
the young of a gazelle
that browse among the lilies.
I offer this verse from the Song of Songs (Song of Songs 4:5) in honor of all women, and in recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Many bloggers have turned their sites a lovely shade of pink in blogdom’s Go Pink for October effort.
Part of the Go Pink effort is the sharing of personal stories. Here’s mine:
I had a cousin, Mary Grace, who was affected by breast cancer. She ended up having a double mastectomy followed by high-dose chemo and radiation therapy.
I remember very clearly how our whole family came together in prayer before, during, and after her treatments. It was an intense and exceptional lesson in faith. I remember the sense of confidence I had in our common prayer. I don’t remember questioning whether the prayer, along with the medical treatment, would work, I just had no doubt.
The treatment worked and Mary Grace was able to carry on for several years. Eventually, the cancer did return, and took her life, the life of an outstanding person, a mom, wife, and educator.
Mary Grace was in the lead among technology educators in this country, long before technology was part of school curricula. Something that I as a blogger and amateur tech guy appreciate and admire.
The Kentucky Association of Technology Coordinators named a Student Technology Leadership Program scholarship in her honor. They had this to say in their minutes (Google archive):
Dr. Mary Grace Jaeger was the director of the Computer Support Unit for Jefferson County Public Schools and in the beginning stages of KERA, she was the Associate Commissioner of Education Technology. Her tireless efforts to improve the integration of technology in instruction benefited students in her county and in all districts across our great Commonwealth. Dr. Jaeger was a wonderful president of KATC and an enthusiastic supporter of STLP. KATC wishes to honor two STLP high achievers who are also effective leaders in their club and community. It is our desire to honor them with a scholarship appropriately named after one who epitomized those same outstanding qualities.
In a special way I honor my cousin Mary Grace who would have turned 50 this year. I also honor all the women of my family.
If you took a look at the family I grew up in, you would see that the majority of family members around me were women, strong, independent, and faithful women.
I personally experienced the parochial attitudes doctors exhibited toward them and the lower level of medical care that these women received. Many would be alive today if not for the poor state of women’s health care.
My mom, my aunt, all of them under treated. All met with the attitude of ‘Oh, honey, you’re just complaining because you’re a woman.’ All with treatable conditions left undetected while doctors raked in revenue. The very same conditions in a man would have been met by extraordinary efforts on the part of the medical community.
So this October, Go Pink, make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and help ensure that our sisters and daughters receive the care they deserve.
