Sickness Is Not Prejudice

Young and stricken with a bacteria or old and plagued with cancer, sickness looks at everyone equally. Disease follows no rules and has no boundaries; this was a concept that became very clear to me not so long ago. 

My grandmother, a survivor of breast cancer, was once again plagued with cancer about 4 years ago. Before my grandmother passed, when her health started to rapidly decline, I would visit her as often as we both could. On one visit, as each of us laid on a couch and watched a quiet black and white movie with the lights off and talked intermittently I came to know that sickness treats everyone in similar ways.

It was that day that it became clear to me how sickness, of all kinds, has similar affects on people. People who endure illnesses are not given letters to wear to show to the world that they are ill. Often times to the normal passer-byer people’s sicknesses are overlooked. It’s the small things that other sick people can identify and relate to that really show how you feel.

 Sick people try so hard not to show their discomfort but there is always a look in their eyes that I have learned to read on to many people’s faces. Not a look of sadness or pain, it’s a look of being slightly more fragile. That same look is often mimicked in people’s movements as their fatigue ridden bodies take a second longer to stand up or they walk in a slower pace. When people are sick we often speak in softer tones and listen with ears of new perspective that appreciates good health all the more. Pain is something else that most people with illnesses acquire in some form or another. As patients alike count their handfuls of colored pills we all seem to have small commonalities in our “sick”uations. 

So if you are a person facing an illness (or if you are healthy) and you have seen someone that is ill and judged them for their actions or thought to yourself their situation couldn’t been as bad as yours... think again. Everyone is fighting their own battle but if you share the enemy of illness you may have more in common than you think. Rich or poor, black or white; when you are struck with a bout of sickness remember that no one is immune. 

Whether you are as healthy as a horse or as sick as a dog, remember to take care of yourself. You only have one life to live, so live it as best you can!