Melinda Marchiano

Grace: A Child's Intimate Journey Through Cancer and Recovery

Yesterday, I asked my friends what their definition of courage is. I love each definition.

Thank you, my truly courageous friends, for sharing with me…

Courage is:

-a cancer child everyday living

-standing up for what you believe in even if you’re standing alone.

-keeping the Faith when all else is against you!

-like the cowardly lion .. we all have it in us somewhere … we just have to find it…

-feeling like giving up, but knowing you can’t

-getting up everyday no matter what faces you. sometimes you walk. sometimes you crawl. . sometimes you run into the storm. . but no matter how much you want to you never run away.

-what a cancer child has… you guys have so much courage to go thru so much and still be the bright young kids that you are

-having the guts to keep forging ahead, even though your body, and natural instincts, may not agree with that decision.

-to face and endure what you fear the most whether by choice or not…whether the outcome is favorable or not

-continuing to climb that mountain knowing the next one could be even higher, taller, larger, harder to climb. Children with Cancer have so much courage! Courage to believe even when you have no proof

-to be scared, to recognize that fear, and to proceed anyway.

-knowing you don’t want to do something, but doing it anyway, for someone’s sake/help – yours or theirs.

-knowing the journey ahead of you is going to be hard to manage, but you just get up and “DO IT” all-the-while staying strong, positive and focused on the best possible outcome!

-just doing it even when it takes all you have got to do so!

-my daughter Ashlee, she had lots of courage facing a fight for her life head on and never backing down. She is an angel in heaven now but she is still my strength and courage

-“Bravery isn’t being fearless…it’s doing the feared.”

-mental or moral strength, having faith

-after watching my son fight…. I define courage as being able to endure anything thrown at you, not being afraid of it, but still being filled with joy and happiness, no matter the outcome.

-believing that God loves you enough through your circumstances to perform a miracle within you.

-after watching my 22 month old daughter fight her cancer and losing, I define courage to be able to stand up and realize there is a purpose for our trials. If I did not I would not have met you Melinda and endorsed your book Grace.

-my husband…being a paramedic,firefighter and police officer he has to see some very gruesome things and lots of death…but still he keeps on going helping people as best as God allows.

-sometimes it isn’t about what you have to do, but about being able to let go of what you no longer can do…

-along with what everyone said I add, making a difference. Standing for what u believe in, being unique, doing the right thing even when everyone’s doing the wrong thing.

-hearing the words “you have cancer”, not crying but saying what do we do next. Never asking “why me” and never letting yourself feel sorry for yourself…this is my cancer journey. My other suggestion above was how I felt when I decided to close my scuba business. Everyone said it took courage to open it and I always said it took more courage to know when to close it and let go of it…

-for me, true courage comes when a cancer patient, especially a child who is still so young, finds out that there are no more options, no more help. Yet they hold on to hope and continue to smile each day, they allow themselves to be filled with the joy of the life they have left, the day in front of them, rather than sink into despair at what they will be losing.

-the will to do what’s right 🙂

-happiness

-♥ ♥ ♥ MELINDA ♥ ♥ ♥ and ALL of our Cancer Warriors and Princesses and everything their families have to endure…thats COURAGE!!

-to do the thing you fear, because what you need to do is more important than any fear that is probably not real anyway.

-going above and beyond one’s comfort zone. Doing things that a person is normally not accustomed to doing in which there is a certain risk in doing so. It could be for that person’s own benefit or for the benefit of others.

-kids like you fighting horrible diseases.

Please Pray For Breanna

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” ~ Maya Angelou