Heroes of Anothe Kind

What is the measure of a man? What is it that he calls upon down deep inside when desparate times come? Heroes are sometimes found in shooting wars and sometimes in wars of another kind. For the past year my granddaughter. Sierra, has fought cancer. January brought news that she was suffering from osteo saccoma in her right knee. This is a tumor attached to the bone. Chemo, titanium inplant, more chemo, cancer recurrence in in the calf of her leg, amputation of the right leg above the knee, another surgery for recurrence in a lung and now extended treatment with a new protocol to improve her immune system is a summary of her year with terror, seven operations and biopsies in a year! It’s 2009 and she’s back in school, looking forward to getting a prosthesis on what she now affectionately calls her “little leg”. We’ve been in three hospitals as well as consultation in another. We have met many “battle buddies” along the way, and what a blessing that has been. We have seen grace and courage in people thrown almost overnight into a nightmare they could never have imagined, a nightmare not to be awakened from, but one awakened into, over and over and over. Cancer is a thief, a robber of time, money and most of all, normalcy. Normal is good. Boring is good. But in the wild and terrifying roller coaster ride where Mr. Cancer takes away a person’s buttons and bows, there stands another MAN. He’s the guy that stays the course, doesn’t run from the unthinkable and remains true to what he vowed, “in sickness and in health” He’s the man holding his wife up when she’s almost beaten, cancer tired. He’s the dad that holds his wife up when their baby is sick unto death. He’s the hero of Cancerland and somewhere there’re making his medal of honor, his badge of courage. These men are described, I hope, in a poem I wrote some time ago and is in my book, “ POEMS BY LOU DAVID ALLEN”

My Prince Charming

Is not the richest,

Nor the smartest,

Nor the most handsome,

But when I’m sixty three

He will still love me

And put a diamond on my hand.

And should our babies be

Sick, even unto death,

He will pray God takes him

And not them.

That’s who my Prince Charming is.


B.S. degree in Physics and an
MBA. I have been an engineer,teacher,junior college administrator,mayor and a salesman. My book, “POEMS BY LOU DAVID ALLEN’ is self published. I sometimes sell some of them when I do readings for various groups.
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