Giuseppina Benenati Hayden (1942-2016)

Fuck Cancer!  Ovarian cancer in particular is an insidious and sneaky disease.  Her grandmother (my great-grandmother) had died of it when she was 52, but I didn’t think my mother (a health nut) would be vulnerable to getting it even at 73.  Mom was in ICU for almost a month and I was there once or twice a day hoping for the little miracles that ended up not helping her to go back to any kind of life she was used to.  Life is so unfair, but I am grateful that at least the last several months of her life Mom lived with me due to completely unrelated circumstances of the fire at her house.  Shando and I were able to keep a close eye on her with my siblings, particularly since my brother and nephew also moved in with us.  Fortunately we had the space.  It was a roller coaster since she was diagnosed only weeks after the fire, but we were at least hoping that she would have a normal life for several more years when we first heard about this.  Instead she had to go to the hospital twice and her little body just couldn’t overcome all of the ways that the chemo related infection and cancer were attacking her organs.  I know she knows we loved her (she was able to nod her head and hear us almost the entire time she was in ICU) and I’m glad I was there holding her hand and promising her my siblings and I would be taking care of each other when she died.  She deserved a longer life, but at least we made her death as dignified as possible.

Mom and me when we lived in Sardinia, Italy – circa 1970