I lost my mom to this dreaded disease on February 12, 2002. Mom was in the intensive care unit of our local hospital for 8 days before being air-lifted to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill. She was there for another 9 before we had to decide to cut off life-support. This disease was eating at her organs and she was literally rotting away. It's hard to believe that this all started from a small sore on her bottom. She said that she had had them many times and not to worry that they would go away in a few days.

I believe that mom knew what was happening to her but she also knew that on January 22, 2002 that she was becoming great-grandma to Miss Natalie Ann Williams. Mom was sick all week with flu-like symptoms but came to see Natalie. She was weak and couldn't even hold her but I did as she looked at her and cried and said she knew that she would never be able to see her grow up. I think this is what gave her the strength to hold on a little longer.

Mom was a very strong person and worried more about others than herself so when she told me not to worry, I believed her. When I couldn't get her to answer the door to her house, I had to call the police to open the door for me. They called an ambulance for her, but it took alot of coaxing from myself and my cousin to get her to go with them. Her only sister had passed away 2 years earlier from diabetes so she had become very close with my cousin and his family.

She said this sore had only been on her bottom for about 5 or 6 days but when I finally saw the sore in the emergency room I was horrified. It was as big as both of my fists put together and black. The nurse, which I had decided was hateful, told us that she would be lucky if it wasn't cancer and there was no way that it had only been there for a few days. Little did I know then that if it had been cancer, my mom may still be alive today.

Mom had 7 surgeries over the next week and a half. I did anything I could to save her, and so did the doctors, but it was never in our hands to begin with. Looking back now I know that my mom would have told me to let her go but I couldn't. I was an only child and I still needed her so much. She had such a tremendous faith in God and had no worries as to what would happen to her when she was gone. In the end, I had to have enough of that faith to let her go. Thanks mom for instilling that faith in me! I love you very much.