Can't wait to Ring the Bell

Today's last and final day of Round 3 was spent in the AIC - the Ambulatory Infusion Center.  The Cancer Center was closed for the day, and the AIC does day patients much better than the hospital.
It is interesting - even though I have been a part of the "cancer community" because of my husband, I still cannot help but look at the bald heads and wonder.
The room is a big square room with vinyl recliners lining the walls.  There aren't large spaces next to the recliners for visitors and it is almost impossible - if side by side patients both have visitors - to keep from chatting to one another and eventually, eavesdropping.  In the corner, two nuns hovered beside an older, smaller nun and next to them, interestingly enough was a minister from another church and his wife.  The two groups shared a prayer and a scripture moment, then returned to their safe spaces.  Isn't it interesting how life tends to push different people together, we gain strength in the experience and then move back to our sphere of comfort until life pushes us again.

Our daughter's picture of her dad - a likeness???

The last day of a Round means the build-up of a week's worth of toxicity in the system and so Christian spends much and most of the time sleeping - but mostly resting.  We do crossword puzzles but talk very little - somehow I get too chit chatty and go faster than he is able after so much treatment, so I try to slow myself down and become the go-to girl and get things, or adjust them, or hand them over.
At the doorway of the AIC is a plaque with a  bell hanging off of it.  The bell looks very nautical and it has a rope pull that you can yank to ring the bell.  The plaque has the loveliest poem - which of course I cannot remember and I didn't write down.  The gist was this - when you have finished your last cancer treatment - ring the bell three times and go with strength and hope.  One of the nurses said that she cries every time she hears the bell ring.  So maybe, in the spirit of Christmas - and following the logic of "It's a Wonderful Life" maybe every time a bell rings, an angel does get his wings.  May the angels who have trod the hard, exhausting road of cancer with patience and long suffering receive the wings of freedom, of health, and of peace.  Go in strength and in hope.