Julia's Namesake Part 2

....continued from my earlier post about Julia's name.

We've known as long as we've been married that if we were ever blessed with a little girl, her middle name would be Meredith.

Meredith is Billy's mother's name.  She was a loving mother of four, wife, grandmother of four (now ten), labor/delivery and newborn nurse, dedicated Christian, and compassionate friend.

In September of 2000 she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer- a rare and aggressive form of cancer that makes up less than 5% of breast cancer diagnoses.  She underwent surgery, chemotherapy, and the day after Christmas- a radical mastectomy to battle this beast.  She was in remission in the new year and praying for good health.

Billy and I were in a serious relationship by this point and he wanted me to meet his family.  We made plans to spend Easter with them.  The week before our trip his mom was diagnosed with leptomeningial carcinoma.  The cancer had spread to her brain.  At this point there is very little that can be done.  And this was the first time I had the chance to meet her.  It was an emotional, stressful, and confusing time for everyone.  She decided to try treatment which meant chemo to the spinal fluid and surgery to install a shunt in her head for chemo treatments.  It was a very difficult process of painful headaches, nausea, loss of vision, and many other horrible symptoms and side effects. 

Despite my living a state away and Billy living three hours from them, we decided to spend every weekend visiting to spend as much time with her as we could.  It was heartbreaking how quickly we were losing her right before our eyes.  I hated seeing her suffering so much.  I desperately wanted the chance to get to know her.  We had a few conversations that I will always hold dear.  We knew her time was limited.

They brought her home to live out her last days on June 20th, 2001- our shared birthday.  She and I had several things in common besides the same birthday we also share the same heart condition, the same love for babies, devotion to our families, doll collections, and faith in God.  It was a birthday I will never forget.  The whole family was there and the pastor came by to visit.  We had a sweet time of worship around her bed and they had a cake to wish me happy birthday.  We spent the next five days caring for her as she slowly left this world.  It still breaks my heart that the most time I spent with her was on her deathbed.  I feel privileged to have been able to care for her though.  The family took turns caring for her.  I would hold her hands, talk to her, sing, and pray. As I would talk she would put her hand over my heart, unable to respond.  It always touched me that the same thing that comforts us in the beginning of our lives comforts us at the end.

These are hands that have touched so many lives with their simple love and compassion.

Little did we know when we chose Julia's name that her two precious angels who fought cancer with such grace would be watching over her while she fought the same battle.