This Working Mom's Words Hit Hard After Her Death
by Sami Cone
Aug 15, 2017
I love being a mother more than anything. It is my reason to live.
These words from a working mom would be poignant at any point in life, but hit hard knowing the mom who wrote them recently lost her battle with cancer and is no longer with us.
Rachel Huff, a fellow blogger and working mom, just lost her fight with Ewing's Sarcoma (an extremely rare form of cancer that often begins in the bones) on August 11, 2017.
She wrote an article for Working Mother last year that was just updated yesterday now that Rachel is gone, and it begged me to read it for a second time.
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Rachel touched on so many struggles and insecurities we face as working moms, but with a sense of purpose those of us without terminal illness have a hard time comprehending:
My home job of “mom” is much more challenging now that I have been told I have metastatic cancer in my bones. On the one hand, I want to spend all of my time with my babies (who are 12 and 17), and on the other hand, they need to live their lives, too. People, trying to be helpful, say to me, “Oh, can I take the kids for you?” as if somehow I need a break from them. I want to scream, “No! I want to savor their faces for as long as I can.”
As I read this, I reflected on all the nights I sit and secretly hope bedtime would come quickly (even more so when my kids were little). This makes me wonder, am I wishing away the best moments of my life...and theirs?
Instead of feeling guilty for the thoughts I may have had (and will likely continue to have throughout the years I'm blessed to parent them), I'm reminded to be fully present in the moment.
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Perhaps more importantly, I'm going to challenge myself to draw strength and purpose from the ordinary.
Rachel goes on to say:
Being able to do these everyday things gives me strength. It gives me purpose. I live in the every day more and more now—in those tasks I previously took for granted, and now am so grateful to be able to get up and do.
So what does this mean for us today? Do we check off every item on our bucket list as quickly as possible? Rachel actually advised against that. Instead, we can learn a great deal from how she chose to live the last days of her life:
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I will be here, drinking a cup of tea and celebrating another day that I get to be with my family, feeling supported by my friends and coworkers, making memories. Even little ones. Maybe, if I’m lucky, my children will remember those the most.
Just as Rachel's friends and family will remember her life even after her death, may we all learn from how she lived rather than focusing on how she died.
Sami Cone
Best-Selling Author & Speaker
Sami Cone is the best-selling author of "Raising Uncommon Kids", is known as the "Frugal Mom" on Nashville's top-rated talk show "Talk of the Town" and educates over a million listeners every day on her nationally syndicated "Family Money Minute". She is proud to call Nashville home with her husband, Rick, and their two ‘tweenage' children.
