I met a blog reader yesterday (and new friend) in NC at a dance competition.\u00a0 After a brief introduction and explanation and figuring out who was whom (as we also have a mutual friend), she mentioned that she recognized McCanless.<\/p>\n
What?<\/p>\n
I just knew my short do was a dead giveaway.\u00a0 Surely, she recognized me<\/em> and my crazy “chemo hair.”<\/p>\n For a moment, I was dumbfounded.<\/p>\n It hit me like a ton of bricks.<\/p>\n The past 7 months have been about me.\u00a0 My bald head.\u00a0 My cancer.\u00a0\u00a0 My chemotherapy.\u00a0 My trials.\u00a0 Me.<\/p>\n And if I’m honest with myself, the four years leading up to this point have been about Mary Clare.\u00a0 Her surgeries. \u00a0 Her recovery.\u00a0 Her seizures. Her medications.<\/p>\n And life is always about Mel.\u00a0 Our world always revolved around his recent passions, ideas and creative spirit.<\/p>\n McCanless once said to me, “You, Dad and MC each have ‘something,’ what’s mine?”<\/p>\n As I watched my insightful girl dance on stage yesterday, I remembered that she was only three when she learned the harsh reality of life.\u00a0 She learned that sometimes it isn’t fair.\u00a0 She learned to live without Mommy during the same month that she learned to swim without floaties.<\/p>\n She learned that baby sisters and life can be fragile.<\/p>\n And she was reminded of that again this year.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, she knows what a port is, the ugliness of a seizure, and how to ignore scars.<\/p>\n She’s mature and patient beyond her years.\u00a0 She’s amazing.\u00a0 She’s recognizable.\u00a0 Not only for her sweet spirit and smile, but for her contribution to our family.\u00a0 I hope one day I can truly explain that her ‘something’ is her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I met a blog reader yesterday (and new friend) in NC at a dance competition.\u00a0 After a brief introduction and explanation and figuring out who was whom (as we also have a mutual friend), she mentioned that she recognized McCanless. What? I just knew my short do was a dead giveaway.\u00a0 Surely, she recognized me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7955"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7957,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7955\/revisions\/7957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}