My Bestie!

Yeah! My bestie (Traci Davis) finished her last round of chemo yesterday! I have to say that she is one of the strongest and most positive people I've ever been around. When she could have stopped everything and just had a pity party, she didn't. She dug her heels in and said "I got this". I may have cried more than she did in the beginning and once I saw her strength shining through I decided I better put my big girl panties on and be there for her. We have actually had a little fun with everything throughout the start of this journey. She said she wanted smiling and laughter, no sadness, so given a mission I worked very hard to make sure that's what we did as much as possible. We had cute pink chemo buddy shirts made up and each buddy wore them with her during treatments and every chance we got to make fun or laugh at either her hair (or lack thereof) or just her diet or whatever it might be that's what we did. We kept our promise to have lunch together at least once a week (we always try to squeeze in an extra each week) and of course argued over whose turn it was to pay (she was usually wrong). :) More than anything though we just encouraged each other. I know you might be thinking, encouraged each other. Well, let me explain. Just as she found out she had stage 3 breast cancer (freaking cancer, I hate you) was when Chad just left on deployment to Afghanistan. Tebo said I needed a project for at least 7 months so I decided my bestie would be my project. Well, less than 6 full weeks later I lost my only child in combat so now suddenly we were each other's project. She has helped me as much if not more than I have helped her. She already had a wonderful husband, amazing sister in law and brother in law and countless family and friends so I was pretty insignificant in the scheme of things anyway, but I was determined to do my part. We truly helped each other. I still went to chemo treatments with her every chance I got when her other buddies couldn't be there and she was so inspirational to me and here I was suppose to be helping her. The great thing about us is we don't keep score so I still have a chance to catch up to her giving since I don't have a clue where we stand now (thank goodness)... HA! I plan to continue to be right by her side through surgeries and anything else she has that comes along with this dreaded disease. I continue to grow as a person every time I see someone (especially someone close to me) go through trials and tribulations and come out seeing the sunshine in it all. That's what Traci does. She finds the sunshine where most others just see black skies. I want to be just like her when I grow up. I love you my bestie!