Mary and I were happily married for seven years when she was diagnosed with cancer. It was fast acting and she was gone four months after it was discovered. The doctors could do nothing. It was a shock and I went into depression but had to act as normally as I could because of Sue. Sue was our five year old daughter. She was old enough to know what was happening but not old enough to understand it. We did not hide it from her. She knew that her mother was very sick and that sometime we would probably lose her, but that did not help the sadness as Mary got sicker and sicker. We had Sue’s fifth birthday party in our bedroom because Mary was too sick to get up. She had a second party with friends. A week later, Mary was gone.