Not sure where to put this but here it goes:
I am 38 and work in the residential construction business. My company manufactures and install showers, counter tops, tub......Anyway I deal with a lot of local contractors. Yesterday my contractor told me to go over to a house close to the office, about 7 minutes exactly, to look at adding on to an existing shower to make it into a steam shower. Meaning going all the way to the ceiling and enclose it for the steam. I said I could no problem and then he said the homeowner is in bad shape that he has cancer. Into my head I imagine a 80 year old male with tennis balls on his walker.
I go to the door and knock pretty hard cause sometimes for old people their door bell doesn't ring or whatever reason I knocked. Thinking I have to be home in 30 minutes I become impatient as the person isn't coming to the door fast enough. I start to return to the car and verify I was at the right house. There was a black VW bug in the driveway so surely he was there. As I am walking to the car, the front door opens. I quickly turn around and see a person my height 5'9", my age 38ish looking at me. I thought, "oh his son is here to take care of pops." I said I am Travis, here to look at a shower. He slowly turned around and we started a slow walk back to the bedroom.
I quickly notice things going on. No one else was in the house. The bed was a lifting kind and the toilet was just different. I did my measuring and we returned back to the den and he sat down kinda sideways, not directly on his ass. Next to him was a TV tray with pills all over it. He mentioned that he is on hospice and has cancer. I nodded ok and proceeded to talk about his Apple TV product and what he does from home since he can't leave travel around much for work with this cancer.
After a few minutes conversing I needed to leave. I walked out and quickly called the contractor to find out what was the story. He has rectal cancer and is near the end. Hospice apparently means they can't do shit for you just hope to make it as comfortable as possible til the end. I did some research about stage 4 cancer in that area and it is crazy what happens. They basically cut the tumor out which closes up your butthole. You have to poop into bag with no control over your movements. Its in the blood stream and the cancer is spreading.
Anyway this encounter wasn't just a person with cancer but a person that looks like me. My cousin has a 3 year old with cancer in Texas and I see pictures with his hair all fallen out and stuff, but for some reason this moment really struck me in a way I never anticipated. Its sick the things we put in our body. The GMO shit is scary and maybe we will see a rise in colon cancer with all this crap food we are eating. Our body hasn't changed but our food has. All I can do is try the best I can to do better. In fact today I ordered an unsweet tea instead of the usual sweet tea, hey I live in Alabama.
