Tanner’s Story: Never Alone

North Carolina Wearing a hospital gown, Tanner picked “the cherry smell” to go with the anesthesia for his port removal surgery — a procedure his family hoped would be the last step in his osteosarcoma treatment. After almost a year of enduring some of the nastiest chemotherapies and a debilitating limb salvage surgery, 10-year-old Tanner has returned to the fourth grade and is back to …

Life After Cancer: A Father’s Perspective
Tanner

North Carolina Our battle is over, won. The weekly trips for chemotherapy have ended; the overnight bags are no longer packed. My wife and I have returned to work, myself, an 18-year military veteran, and she, a preschool teacher. Our 10-year-old son is also getting back to normal. Wait, normal, what is that? I long to feel the way I once felt…normal: complaining about afternoon …

Faith in the Dark
MacKale

Cadillac, Michigan When your children are small, you are the one they cry out to in the dark. It is easy to be brave in the light, but in the dark, fears are often amplified . . . bigger . . . more real. In the light, it is easier to face the demons and fears when you can see them coming. When my son, …