The Person Beside the Patient

When someone you love has cancer, people naturally look toward the patient. How are they doing? What did the scan show? What happens next?

Those questions make sense. The patient is the one with the diagnosis, the treatment, the surgery, the side effects, the uncertainty written directly into their body. But there is usually someone standing nearby whose life is changing too.

The person beside the patient.

In our story, that person has often been Patty. She did not wake up one morning and decide to become a caregiver. She was my wife before cancer, and she remained my wife through all of it. The caregiving grew around the relationship because life required it.