![\"\"](\"http:\/\/katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/tea.jpg\" "\\"tea\\"")
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On a Saturday morning in early October Josie and I were headed to a birthday party when we arrived to find the main road into the park blocked by a stage, tables and an abundance of balloons. There was no easy way to get to the playground, dog park, soccer fields or the Gymboree where the party was being held. I took a few turns trying to figure out how to get there and so did everyone else who wanted to use the park that fine Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
Finally I found the right building. I was trying to park when a woman came running, waving her arms with fire in her eyes \u2013 clearly caught up in the adrenalin of a live<\/em> event. This road is closed<\/em>, she yelled, this road is closed!<\/em><\/p>\n I rolled down my window, pointed at the building and said I was parking for a birthday party over there. She told me I wasn\u2019t allowed to be there and she was so adamant that I turned around. As I drove away she screamed \u2013 It\u2019s a walk to benefit breast cancer!<\/em><\/p>\n Seriously?<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know what to think at first. Did I feel a little guilty because, after all, I\u2019m alive and cancer-free? Sure, I\u2019ve lost a few body parts and a few friends but not my mother or my sister. I wondered if I should feel bad because I had been frustrated with the woman. Then I remembered that I wasn\u2019t the one who was frustrated. I wasn\u2019t the one who raised my voice. I was just looking for parking. I was just trying to get my 3 year-old to a birthday party.<\/p>\n Eventually we made it to the party. We had a lovely time. As we drove out I saw the woman. I didn\u2019t say anything to her but I wish I had. I wish I had stopped and gotten out of my car. I wish I had said that I wasn\u2019t mad or upset or threatening her in any way. I wish I had re-iterated that I was just trying to get my daughter to a birthday party, and that I had, in fact, been parking in the right place. I wish I had told her that I was sorry for her loss, that I was sorry for her grief.<\/p>\n I wish I\u2019d told her that I\u2019d had cancer once. I wish she\u2019d told me her experience. I wish we\u2019d really listened to each other. Then without giving her a hug or sharing any tears or secret handshakes, but simply as one compassionate adult to another, I wish I had said goodbye and been on my way. Most of all, I wish we\u2019d both really heard each other. Maybe if all of us did more of that, then maybe someone would stumble upon a cure for our sadness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On a Saturday morning in early October Josie and I were headed to a birthday party when we arrived to find the main road into the park blocked by a stage, tables and an abundance of balloons. There was no easy way to get to the playground, dog park, soccer fields or the Gymboree where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer","category-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":903,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889\/revisions\/903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}