INNISFAIL - Two years ago Sandy Kelly Bexon had a breast cancer scare. Her mother Betty died from it in 1999. She thought about that time, and recalled how she did her best to comfort her mother. "Breast cancer is a big fear for all women.
INNISFAIL - Two years ago Sandy Kelly Bexon had a breast cancer scare.
Her mother Betty died from it in 1999. She thought about that time, and recalled how she did her best to comfort her mother.
"Breast cancer is a big fear for all women. The waiting is excruciating," said Bexon, recalling the burden she faced. "That's when I thought about my mom 20 years earlier when she was waiting."
Betty was first diagnosed with cancer in 1995. She had surgery. During that worrisome time Bexon brought her mother a notebook, hoping she would find comfort with the therapeutic power of writing out her experience and feelings during this time of turmoil.
"In my whole life I have managed to acquire a sense of the world by writing," said Bexon, the communications officer at the Innisfail central office of the Chinook's Edge School Division, who published her first book, Moving Mountains, three years ago. "I thought it would bring her comfort to journal her experiences. The clincher was that little did I know that the words she wrote would bring me comfort 20 years later."
Betty's cancer returned three years later, and this time there would be no recovery.
Bexon's story about the notebook and how it comforted her ailing mother and then herself during her own cancer scare, is now one of 101 inspirational stories being published in the new Chicken Soup for the Soul book, Angels and Miracles. Her story is called Turning to Mom.
It begins with the catching of the "glint" of the coil-bound notebook she was looking for in an old cedar chest. On that day she completed the final tests for breast cancer. Bexon was hoping to find comfort through her mother's own words during her cancer battle.
She discovered that few pages in the notebook had been filled. Two of them were in her own handwriting.
"This isn't anything fancy, but this type of scribbler is just what I use for my journal," said one entry Bexon had written. "I think your idea for writing your experiences/thoughts/revelations down is a really good one. It will likely help you a lot and, who knows, it may end up helping other people."
Bexon was thunderstruck. Yes, the notebook she had brought to her mother had turned out to be a gift, but to herself during her own health crisis.
Four days after her mother's passing on Feb. 28, 1999, Bexon wrote a final passage in the notebook.
"Thank you for living as long as you did. Thank you for loving as well as you did. Thank you for teaching all that you did. Thank you."
Bexon's cancer scare turned out to be only just that – a scare. Today she is healthy and prospering, and sharing her own miracle story in the new Chicken Soup for the Soul book.
Bexon, who is currently working on her new novel, Secrets from Bob's Garage, will be doing a book signing in Red Deer for the new Angels and Miracles book on Nov. 5, from 11:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., at Coles bookstore in the Parkland Mall.
