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I was seated waiting on my daughter when I saw this woman, she didn't look sick or unwell but she didn't have any hair. She had a beautiful face and look so pretty even without her hair.
I talked with her and she told me her story that she did indeed have cancer, she would go in for her chemotherapy treatments and come to work right afterward. She spoke of her faith in god that he would see her through this and give her strength to beat the cancer.
She never once tried to push her religion on me but spoke of her belief system as a way she was coping with her illness. She was so positive and such a good person. I talked to her everytime I would go into Walmart because I enjoyed her so much. She was one of the managers that watched the floors. She got to know my name and my daughters we spoke so often.
She always said that god had plans for her and it was not her time and that he would get her through this. She was what religious people call one of gods faithful. Such a kind heart.
Just a week ago I noticed she was not there, a couple more visits and I noticed she was not there. I began to fear the worse. I believed that she would beat the cancer if only because of her positive attitude. I thought that he belief she was going to beat ALSO included factual information about the severity of the cancer.
Last night my daughter and I went into Walmart and found a memorial to her that the management had set up. There were cards laying there for people to sign for the family. Pictures of her before she had cancer and after. My daughter and I wept as we signed the card.
Why if there is a god, would he let someone like her die? She was a good and kind person. I spoke with a couple people who worked in Walmart and knew her and they teared up as we spoke about what kind of a woman she was, how good she was, what a good worker she was, how she had integrity and could be trusted at work.
She left behind a husband and children. Where is the sense in that in the christian world?? Why would this wonderful woman who sang gods praises, who witnessed for him, who had 100% faith in him be allowed to die and to die in such a horrible way??
I don't get the point of it all from the christian point of view.
AND to those people who go on about how we all have choice. Just who chooses to get cancer, to waste away, loose their hair and die in horrible pain. She made no such choice. It was her intention to stay here and keep being an example of her faith. That was her choice.
Pauline at Orange City, Florida Walmart will be greatly missed, there were many cards there on the table that had been filled with people relating their own stories and the management would bring more. Where was her god when she took her last breath?? What did her faith get her?? What did her faith give her family??
sad, very sad....
she held on to the hope and that may have kept her gong till the end but the illness wins many times. Her religion may have been the only thing she thought would not let her down, the god she believed in. That makes it even worse IMO. the fact that so many cling to that deity. But what can you do, tell the person there's no god?.. it would not have been right to try to destroy her hope...
I think positive thinking can do a lot but cancer is a cruel thing, it has no feelings for anything or anyone.
Death and sickness are equal opportunity events. I have known people who were religious, and like you questioned if there was a god why did he allow their daughter/friend to die. My friend became bitter against religion, and as of last month still viewed religion only as a crutch that did not help people through hard times, but rather deluded them into a false reality. She knows I am an Atheist and we have discussed the topic of religion, but like so many her raw pain of a child’s death is fogging the ability not to blame something or someone. Her pain is turned on the religion she feels failed her and in doing so is allowing her to survive. I guess in a way it is helping her cope.
As an atheist and a cancer survivor myself, I personally did not need a religious crutch. I found reality was better, and I wanted to know the odds, which I took back to a science based understanding, and fought the fear that way. The choice in my view had to be based on logic not hopeful wishes. That said, many others in the same cancer boat as me saw it in another light, and needed a religious outlet. We all go where it seems safe, where we feel the power to control our own lives, and I think both methods of coping are right. It just needs to be based on what the person needs.
Your friend needed religion; I suspect she knew the odds, as do most cancer victims. She chose a religious outlet to buffer the fear, other use knowledge to buffer the fear, and the lucky ones have people who help them cope. It looks like she had all three, which made her a lucky lady.
What a sad story. Since she "spoke of her belief system as a way of coping with her illness", I'd say she knew exactly what she was doing. I wish I could have signed her card as well.
Such a sad story. I believe for some people it is easier to believe that God had a plan or will save them, than face the truth, that most likely they will die of the disease (if it is an advanced case). I have heard a few people say that God will perform a miracle.... even when they were told by doctors that there is nothing they can do. Some people, IMO, can deal with that fact and accept it and prepare for death, others can't and they will cling to anything. One of the reasons why I do not believe in any "God" is the fact that so many good people end up dying from cancer or some other horrible disease, while the jerks live to be old. What about all the catastrophies that kill thousands of people? Either this "God" doesn't care and in that case, why should I care about him? Or to put it very simply and this is what I believe.. there is no "God" and everything is random, good things happen to bad people and just as often the other way around.
I am very sorry such a wonderful person died so young. Life is not fair.
__________________
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. ~Henry David Thoreau
I was in Walmart again today and I was speaking to someone about her. He told me that Pauline suffered through 5 bouts with cancer. The word was she was getting better, her death came as a shock to everyone including her family and doctors.
What is the point of praying for someone when it clearly has NO effect on the outcome?
I would never have said to this woman that her god doesn't exist, I wouldn't say that to anyone unless they were wanting to debate something to that effect. If believing there was a god out there that cared about her, helped her make it as long as she did, then there is nothing I would do to try and sway her. She was so firm in her beliefs that nothing I could have said would have swayed her anyway.
Such a sad story. I believe for some people it is easier to believe that God had a plan or will save them, than face the truth, that most likely they will die of the disease (if it is an advanced case). I have heard a few people say that God will perform a miracle.... even when they were told by doctors that there is nothing they can do. Some people, IMO, can deal with that fact and accept it and prepare for death, others can't and they will cling to anything. One of the reasons why I do not believe in any "God" is the fact that so many good people end up dying from cancer or some other horrible disease, while the jerks live to be old. What about all the catastrophies that kill thousands of people? Either this "God" doesn't care and in that case, why should I care about him? Or to put it very simply and this is what I believe.. there is no "God" and everything is random, good things happen to bad people and just as often the other way around.
I am very sorry such a wonderful person died so young. Life is not fair.
Thats exactly what I think Katz. This is random and no one is watching over anyone. I see no sense in what is going on in this world. No rhyme or reason, no greater plan.
"Bless her pea-pickin' heart", my Grany would say!
(kleenex, please)
Anyways....
I've been raised to not see things as bad happenings for me, but as something good happening for someone else.
Maybe her chemo-therapist needed that much more experience before he/she could be able to save someone else.
Maybe her lot in life was to touch your heart to glean you more understanding into the struggles of cancer victims.
Maybe it was for the benifit of your daughters..
There are always a thousand good things for every bad thing.
Just like when someone is late, people automatically assume something bad must've happened.
Maybe they ran into a long-lost friend and was catching up and lost track of time....maybe they won the lottery...etc...
"Bless her pea-pickin' heart", my Grany would say!
(kleenex, please)
Anyways....
I've been raised to not see things as bad happenings for me, but as something good happening for someone else. Maybe her chemo-therapist needed that much more experience before he/she could be able to save someone else.
Maybe her lot in life was to touch your heart to glean you more understanding into the struggles of cancer victims.
Maybe it was for te benifit of your daughters..
There are always a thousand good things for every bad thing.
Just like when someone is late, people automatically assume something bad must've happened.
Maybe they ran into a long-lost friend and was catching up and lost track of time....maybe they won the lottery...etc...
anyway.....that's my thoughts
So someone else's life is more important then hers? I doubt her family would buy that one. I have never heard a christian say that god values some of his people more then others.
Thats exactly what I think Katz. This is random and no one is watching over anyone. I see no sense in what is going on in this world. No rhyme or reason, no greater plan.
Yep. I always WANTED to believe that someone "out there" cares, but it doesn't look like it to me. Too much suffering, granted some of it we create ourselves.... but why should children in Africa starve? Why are there Tsunamis that kill tens of thousands of people? What did they do to deserve it? NOTHING. It is random and I believe everything is.... we are here and then we are gone. The End.
I do believe that we all have to power to make change in the world, positive change, by doing good things for others and the planet. In many ways we make our own "hell" right here... which one could call the evil in US, but I don't believe in Evil outside of us, nor do I believe in Good/God outside of us. We are "God" or Good, if we so chose. Guess I think more along the lines of Buddhism, yet I do not believe in any "Gods" or "Prophets" etc....
In a way I envy people who believe in a higher power, they often have someone to shift responsibility onto, good and bad. But from everything I have read and seen, religion is just a way to control people and get them to fork over their money this is oversimplifying it, but you know what I mean.
__________________
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. ~Henry David Thoreau
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this is oversimplifying it, but you know what I mean.
