From an article originally posted May 22, 2013
Two more treatments! Two more! Two then one and I’m done. I certainly have more procedures in the future, but this morning I realized this Friday is my LAST morning fighting cancer. This is that last leg of this journey. This is the end of this weary year of beating, destroying, minimizing the radical cells that took residence in my body. Chemo, bilateral mastectomy, radiation.... The end. Period. The remaining procedures are preventative. This is the end of getting the cancer gone. Amen!
Friday, after my last treatment, there is a bell. I ring the bell three times to end my journey and send me on my way. You, my friend, are invited to join me. It will possibly seem too simple, anti-climactic, perhaps it is, but I can hardly wait. You, my friend, have partnered with me on this journey. I would love to have you with me. My last appointment is Friday morning at 8am. It takes me all of five minutes, then I’m done forever. So don’t be late. We will be in the radiation wing of the Penrose Main Hospital off of Nevada downtown. My whole family will be there.
If you can’t make that, we will be grabbing breakfast at Le Baguette. After we drop the kids at school for their last day of school, we will be right over to my favorite breakfast spot. We will be there a little before 9. Come have a coffee with us.
I love you, my dear partners on this journey. If you know me, you know I love people! You know I’ve needed your support. I have been carried by each of you. Even if I have never met you, you have been on team Tippetts from the start. Come celebrate. This is the bookend to this season, but this is certainly not the end of my story. I’m so thankful for the journey.
This feels like a graduation. I don’t know what’s next, but I can hardly wait to get on with it. Come, celebrate this messy life journey with me. Be sure to celebrate my guy, my little people, my Mickey, and Carl. So many to celebrate—my sister, my brother, parents, dear church family, and close girlfriends that have not backed away from the challenge of carrying me through this bitter battle. So many have prayed, cooked, cleaned, prayed some more. So many. I’m so blessed.
Consider yourself invited! I love you! Don’t question, don’t think, She surely wouldn’t want me there. WRONG! Come! Be joyful, we have certainly had enough tears together, it’s time for joy!
Oh, I could never add enough pictures to include you all. My heart is full, my body is rid of cancer, sigh... Now to take hold of the next step. I have heard it can be hard to trust the next step. I know I will have you all behind me cheering me forward. It’s time for a dance party. It’s been a long time coming. First, let’s get the bell rung!
Just going through my pictures makes me weepy with gratitude.
This journey has absolutely humbled and broken me, but I’m so rich. I’m so very rich in love. I know there are many of you all around the country that will be joining us in spirit Friday morning. I love you all mucho!
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
