Comment by lysergic

My second closest childhood friend died from leukemia about ~18 years ago, when we were about ~10 years old. I still think about him sometimes and even now as I'm writing this I feel some sadness.

According to my mother his mother was head nurse of pediatrics and had not noticed my friend becoming sick, and he became very sick. He was given kemo therapy and subsequent bone marrow transplant, but he didn't get better. Apparently the kemo made him blind and more afraid until his death.

And his death took a toll on his family, and especially his twin sister, which their mother lashed out at and was told by their mother that "she should have been the one dead."

Childhood cancer ruins so many people and relationships, and I deeply hate this thing that almost seem intrinsic to the human condition.