A few years ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was living in Pensacola Florida, nearly eight hours away from her when I heard the news. Needless to say I was scared to death that I would loose my mother just like I lost my Grandmother to cancer. A few weeks went buy and everything seemed to be going as good as it could until my mom got extremely sick and was hospitalized. I received a call from my father telling me that her chances of surviving were slim and the doctors didn’t think she would last much longer. She hadn’t eaten in over two months and went from 130 lbs to under 90 lbs. I feared the worst. I told my dad that I would catch the next plane and fly down, but he stopped me in mid conversation telling me not to come. He was afraid that my mother would give up the fight having seen me for one last time giving her the chance to say her good buys just like my grandmother did when my dad flew to her bedside in Chicago when she was ill.

I was in a rut, I didn’t want to fly down to my mom’s side for her to say her good buys to me and my sister yet I didn’t want to sit back and not be there for her. Uncertain of what to do, I went outside in the freezing cold and sat on the front porch bench with my head between my knees praying to God for a sign that my mom was going to be okay. Just as I started getting up to go warm up inside I noticed the tree across the street. Not a single leaf or bud was on this tree the day before, but on this day the tree was filled lavishly with bright pink flowers I had never seen before. At that moment, I knew my mom was going to be okay… that this was my sign I asked God for. So I got on the phone, booked the next flight to Cape Coral and called my dad letting him know that everything was going to be okay and not to worry.

My mom recovered with in a few months. Before we knew it, all her hair had grown back and she was starting to eat better and gain the weight that she had lost. Still to this day, she doesn’t realize how sick she really was but none of us will forget how close we came to loosing her.

My mom’s health never returned back to normal. Her blood pressure was high and hard to keep under control with medication. She was put on dialysis a couple years later because of her kidney failure that was caused by her rising blood pressure. Her treatments were every four hours, unable to swim in the ocean anymore and unable to enjoy life like so many do, but dialysis was keeping her alive and for that we were all grateful.

Most people are on the waiting list between one to two years for a new kidney, if they receive on at all. My mom waited nearly four years from the time she started dialysis till four weeks ago when we got the call that it was her time. This time, I was close by, in fact living with them so the feelings were much different than being eight hours away. I was able to be by her side every moment assuring her things were going to be okay.

Working as an anesthesia technician my mom is fully aware of the difficulties of transplant surgeries and she was scared, we were all scared but we kept our calm and assured her that she was going to do great.

I had to pick up my son from school during the middle of the surgery and as I was driving down the road, I asked God for a sign that everything was going to be okay. As I was praying, I missed my turn and had to take a different route which led me down a road that had a median filled with trees lavished with beautiful pink flowers. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Had I not been semi distracted while driving and praying (yes my eyes were open) I wouldn’t have had to go the long way where these pink flowered trees were planted. Again, God had given me a sign letting me know everything was gong to be okay, which it was. My mom is two weeks a head of schedule on her kidney transplant recovery. She is doing great and able to start work next month when she was first told that she would be out of work for three months. She even enjoyed her first glass of red wine during lunch with me last week. Most of all, she cant wait to swim in the ocean again and enjoy the beach which she has been longing to do for nearly five years.

When someone asks me what my sign is…. I gently smile and say "pink".