homecoming queen

yesterday, i had a little celebration. it was my anniversary of homecoming: it’s been exactly one year since i came back from shizuoka where i had cancer treatments.
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although i don’t want to recall my trying ordeal, i never forget how i was saved by my brilliant doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists, pharmacists and all the staff of the hospital who were great. more importantly, i never forget how everyone cared me: my family who are my daughter, son, mother, brother and his family; my ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law; all my old friends around the world; my new local friends; as well as my new young friends who sent me divine strings of one thousand origami cranes and video messages that made me cry. everything they did for me still means a lot to me.
* the hospital was beautiful and had almost everything from a library (even a spa!) to a café with a superb view of mt. fuji, which is mostly behind clouds in summer, though. there were also gorgeous gardens designed to encourage patients for both exercise and comfort. from day one, i’d talk to god literally while having a walk in the rose garden. i’d ask god not to give up on me in return for my promise to be a better person. then, i’d sit on my favourite bench in the ‘london pride’: a small but lovely english garden with a shed and a pond, named by the english gardener who created it. it was always there as if it was set all for me. i’d recall my london days or even i’d often lost a sense of where i was now – because it made me feel as if i was passing a summer in london.
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radio-chemotherapy was indeed a long and hard medical treatment. it’s like suffering from 24 hour-morning sick and nasty attacks of diarrhoea. but luckily, it did work for me. after 4 weeks of my initial treatments, kind of a miracle happened to me. my doctors informed me they’d cancelled the operation, which was supposed to enable me to get a further (pretty intimidating) treatment. that was why i was there. almost no other hospitals including my local one could offer patients in a particular case like me. it was only two days prior to the scheduled operation date. i had been given a detailed explanation of general anaesthetic by an anaesthetist and even a simulation on the operating table to be ready after taking a series of test and scanning. my doctors studied that the latest result and found my tumour had remarkably shrunk: small enough to continue usual treatment. shion, my daughter who regularly visited me, was with me to share the breaking news. she was speechless. with joy.
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among other fellow-fighters who were from shizuoka prefecture i was alone miles away from home, but i never felt forlorn nor minded it at all. that was convenient for me to ask everyone not to visit me. i didn’t want my friends to see me in hospital, though i looked quite well as i didn’t lose my hair. still, as shizuoka is relatively close to tokyo where my old friends and children live, masaco and osuzu, two of my old best friends, ignored my request and came to see me, and mr piano-man, my ex husband, too, managed to find time for several visits, taking me out of the hospital for a short drive. i was more than touched by their visits.
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