Secrets From The Med

Chapter 2

Everything changed one snowy day in January of 1986 when Tabitha's mother was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. At first, Tabitha had been convinced that the doctors had made a huge mistake, that there was no way her mother could be that sick. As the months progressed, however, there was simply no denying reality. Her once energetic mother became too weak to perform the most simple of household tasks and would spend hours on end violently vomiting as a result of chemotherapy treatments. The changes in her physical appearance had been shocking as well, as her long hair fell out and her body became swollen.

Their mother's illness began to take such a huge toll on their dad that her brothers made the decision not to return to college that following fall. Instead, they each took jobs at the factory where their dad worked so that they could help out with taking their mother to doctor's appointments as well as with the house and yard work. Brad had a serious talk with Tabitha about dropping some of her extracurricular activities as well, and she knew she had to agree to it. She resigned from the cheerleading squad and didn't try out for any school plays or sign up for events with any of the clubs she was in. She did concentrate on staying on the honor roll, but beyond that, her life pretty much revolved around helping take care of her mother.

Because Tabitha was no longer taking part in any extracurricular activities, she lost contact with many of the people she had once considered friends, other than passing them in the hallway at school. The one friend who remained a constant in her life was Penny. Penny called Tabitha every single day to see how things were and to see if there was anything she could do. When she wasn't busy with cheerleading or the library, Penny would often come over and help Tabitha with housework or cooking. Sometimes she would just sit and listen as Tabitha poured out her frustration or hug her as she cried. At times she would try to cheer Tabitha up by saying, "A couple of years from now, we'll be roommates at UK. We'll have so much fun; we've got such bright futures ahead of us, Tabitha!"

It was the final week of May in 1987 when the decision was made that Tabitha's mother would have no more doctor or hospital visits, but that she would stay home for good. Friends and relatives who lived far away were called and told that if they wanted to see Kathleen Sherfey alive ever again, they would have to do so quickly. During those days, Tabitha rarely left her mother's bedside, fearing that if she did, her mother would stop breathing while she was away.

One morning during the first week of June, Tabitha was sitting at her mother's bedside holding her hand. Her dad and both her brothers, along with two of her great aunts who had come to visit were also in the room. One of her aunts commented about how hard it was raining outside, when suddenly the doorbell rang. One of her brothers went to answer it; it turned out to be Penny's older cousin, Melinda, who had come over to inform them that Penny had been on her way to volunteer at the library when her car had been hit head on by another vehicle that had hydroplaned on the wet roadway. Penny was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tabitha recalled that she had screamed at the top of her lungs that it couldn't be true, that there must be some mistake. Penny couldn't be dead; Tabitha needed her! The two of them were going to be roommates at UK! Her dad and brothers had tried to calm her down and console her and one of her aunts tried to help her make sense of it by telling her that everything happens for a reason.

Later, when Tabitha was alone, she had secretly cried out to God, begging Him to please let her keep her mother since He had decided to take her best friend. She didn't think it was an unreasonable request; her mother was still alive, surely God could work out some sort of a miracle, it just wasn't fair that she should lose her best friend and her mother too.

Exactly one week later, very early in the morning, Tabitha was in her bedroom on her hands and knees crying out her requests to God, when there was a soft knock at the door. When she opened it, her father was standing there with tears in his eyes. "Mom's gone," he had told her.