The Chair

To most people who look at this picture, it seems like just a simple chair. However, I looked at this picture and immediately burst into tears. That doesn’t happen to me very often, especially in public. But this night was different; this picture had reached back and invoked a memory that I had not thought of that vividly in almost four years. 

My friend Kim and I were standing in a storefront in the University Mall. I had come to support the I CANcer Photo Journey Art Display. This art display included photos that were taken by members of a support group for adolescents being treated at UNC who were impacted by their cancer diagnosis.

The caption under the picture said “The Chair”. I knew exactly what the photographer meant. I recognized that very chair. I recognized the room. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach as I stared at it. I cried while the memories came flooding back. That was the chair where I was told that my 8-year-old daughter had cancer.

That is the chair where I sat and heard the news that would change my life forever. It is far from a simple chair. I feel a bond to the stranger who took the picture because they feel an emotional connection to the chair too.

 

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Although Striving for More did not fund the Teen Support Group that presented these photographs. We believe that programs like this are vital to the emotional well being of patients and their families. We applaud UNC for securing the funding to provide this program to their patients. We hope to be able to grant funding to both UNC and Duke to provide wonderful programs such as this to give their patients and caregivers an outlet for the difficult emotions that are a natural part of the cancer diagnosis.