I am pretty sure that at that time, she had cancer and was doing chemo. From what they told me, I knew that she went to the doctor a lot and would get really tired. This memory holds a lot of significance to me because she was one of my favorite people growing up. Because she passed away not long after, I do not have many memories with her. If I were to lose this memory, I have others, such as being there when she passed away. When she was in hospice, they told me she was sick when I was 8 or 9. I did not know what it meant to have cancer. They said she was sick and I thought having cancer was contagious, like having the cold (which was really the only type of sickness I knew about).

I have this really awful memory: Whenever she would give me a kiss on the cheek or forehead, I would wipe her kiss away. I remember seeing her look very hurt when I did that. I just had thought she was passing germs--that I could get sick from her kiss. If I lost that good memory and all I had left was remembering her hurt face from me wiping away her kiss, that would really hit me hard.