My rock.

Last Tuesday was one of the worst days of my life. I got a phone call at 715 am from my dad telling me that the results from the MRI came in and they weren't good. They had found four lesions on his brain and he was being admitted to the hospital immediately. After hanging up the phone I burst into tears and began to shake. That was not the outcome we were expecting to get from his MRI. I quickly contacted my work, dropped stuff off at the office, and made my way to the hospital. That first day was a blur. Doctors and nurses were in and out, the word cancer was thrown around.

They did a full scan on my dad's body and found a mass on his lung, coming to the conclusion that he indeed had cancer, lung cancer that spread to the brain.

Shit.

He's a nonsmoker and a pretty healthy guy, so this diagnosis was a shock. A complete, ugly shock.

My family members and I have been in and out of the hospital ever since to visit him.  A prayer page has been started on Facebook. And tonight, a prayer service was held in his honor at the church. It
was a beautiful ceremony led by one of my best friends, Dean, and attended by many many friends and family members. My dad had even written a letter to the attendees that was read outloud.

One of the songs sung was "how can I keep from singing". It was a perfect choice. There was a line that really stuck out to me, though, and that was "no storm can shake my inmost calm, while to my Rock I'm clinging".

My dad is my rock. He is who I cling to. He's the rock of the family, giving us advice and challenging us. And when I cling to him or go to him for advice, I am calm. He calms me. He is my rock. He's my daddy. I don't know any man that is better or greater than him. He is gentle and sweet, funny and easy going. And I hate that such a special man has to go through this. He didn't do anything to you, cancer, so you can just leave him alone.

He's a fighter and is ready to fight this thing. He will have surgery Tuesday to take out the biggest lesion in his brain and the lung cancer will be treated with chemo and radiation. He's gonna kick cancers ass.

I love you dad and so does the entire community that surrounds us: our friends, the families at st Hugo, and our family.

We will beat this.