another sad movie

I made the mistake of tuning into "Lifetime" movie channel on a dozy,not quite feeling well afternoon ."Two Against Time" is guaranteed to instantly increase the value of Kimberly Clark stock!In this movie,a rebellious teen daughter of a divorced mom is found to have cancer in the muscles of her arm.She goes,kicking and screaming, into chemo,loses hair,finds fellow cancer sufferer-peer and all seems well.Of course,about this time her mom and Mom's best friend do the mamogram thing buddy-style,only to find out...you guessed it...Mom has breast cancer !There they are,both in chemo,both wearing wigs,both confronting death in their own way.Daughter completes high school ,only a semester behind her classmates and Mom throws a fantastic party for her...knowing her own cancer has come back.She sends the girl to a wonderful school to pursue her photography and Mom's back to chemo...with no hope of recovery . The daughter finds out and comes home to nurse her mom at home,hospise-style,spending quality time-reading,talking,sharing...and the mother dies at the end,after being reassured by the daughter that her Mom doesn't have to worry,she'll be okay...that it's all right to let go... Okay,in and of itself,this is a Kleenex Big Box movie. Yet the wet cheeks , soggy sweater.and humongous pile of spent tissues comes from an underlying emotion separate from the film. Fear and grief-fear that any moment,my Mom might not wake up . Grief,that the void of her absence yawns huge and deep.Yes,she is my mother...but above that,she is my friend. We spent that last day of his life with my father...talked to him,even after he slipped into the coma.We wanted to be sure he knew that he wasn't alone.We held his hands and told him how very much we loved him and how proud we were at the fantastic man,husband and father he had been...and,yes...how much we would miss him and told him it was okay to let go;that he'd trained us well and we'd be able to take care of things...and then,he slipped away . You know,after an experience like that,you don't fit in your old skin anymore...something changes inside . Interesting that this change also occurs after witnessing a birth firsthand . These life-changing events are just that...lives that change and the effect those events have on others . I am not ready to lose my mother/friend,but that timing decision is not up to me. All we can do is take each day as it comes,rejoicing in the small moments and love each other for as long as we have,grateful for the time.