Lung Cancer: A Mass on the X-ray
A personal story for Lung Cancer Awareness month
I'm warning you this post is extremely personal. I wish it wasn't. I wish I could say it's fictional. But it really happened.
It happened unknowingly.
And it happened to my Dad.
November 1999
Through fat tears welling up in my eyes and then tumbling over and spilling down my cheeks, at 30 years of age, I cried when I told the sweetest lady hospice chaplain, “I just wish you could know him as I know him.”
She then said the kindest thing back to me, “I AM getting to know him through you, his lovely family.”
October 1995
The Primary Care doctor told him it was bad. He'd just reviewed my Dad's chest x-ray and gave him the solemn news. My Dad was in disbelief. He thought he just had allergies or maybe now pneumonia with the fever. NO, it was indeed lung cancer. The white glaring mass on the scan said so. More testing would reveal just how bad:
Stage IV,
inoperable,
metastasized to his neck lymph nodes.
Oh, and nine months to live.
My Dad was only 52 at the time, his first grandson had just been born THE very morning of his diagnosis. Heart wrenching stuff. Are you serious? Is this really happening to OUR family? Why now? Why at all? WHY, God???
YES he smoked! Doesn't everyone assume that if you get lung cancer you must smoke? Not always true you know! He'd also quit smoking 25 years prior to his diagnosis when he became a Christian.
They say the lungs can improve in time but "they never forget.” Oh how I wish they would have!
I remember him quitting smoking when I was six years old. Daddy honestly and openly told God in a prayer that he loved smoking. Told God that he no longer had a smoking problem but that God had a smoking problem because he was giving the burden all to him. And he wasn't lying.
He was a true chain smoker. And a good one. Smoked 3-4 packs a day, sometimes had one cigarette going in his hand and another burning in the ashtray. A real Marlboro Man, without the hat and horse.
I remember him lying down on our floral couch. Covered up in orange blankets and shivering with his eyes closed for three long days. As a child I didn't fully understand what was going on. Daddy was sick I thought. Years later I would realize he was quitting smoking and going "cold turkey" as they say and was suffering the horrific withdrawals of a powerful drug called, Nicotine. God was indeed taking his smoking addiction and answering my Daddy's prayer.
He never smoked a single cigarette again. Ever.
Get this though, his next oldest sibling had introduced him to cigarettes when he was a child. I'm not joking, a mere child! Guess it was “the times” back then. Guess it was innocent. Guess it was the stupidest thing ever. No, I don't guess, I know it was!
Everyone was smoking back then, it was "cool" to smoke or so they thought.
Why am I writing this? I've wondered that too. It's painful even now. Let alone to recount it. You see I miss my Dad every single day. We were close. Tears are welling up as I type. I'm posting this on the anniversary month of when he went to be with Jesus, November back in 1999. It was 7:10pm when I looked at the digital clock on his bedside and recorded my own Dad’s passing. He was only 56 years old.
Maybe someone will read this who smokes. Maybe someone else out there hates lung cancer as much as I do. Maybe you have lung cancer. I don't know. But this month is lung cancer awareness and screening month. I don't want another person or family to be devastated by this horrible disease. So if you smoke anything, ANYTHING, I implore you, please quit. And go get a chest x-ray. It might just save your life!
I'm sure my Dad would have loved to been a grandparent longer than 4 short years.
Maybe you can.
If you have lost a loved one to lung cancer or any kind of cancer, I'm so very sorry. I know how it hurts to your inner core, how it feels to cry until your tear ducts literally run dry over someone you love.
If you have lung cancer or any kind of cancer, I want to encourage you as well. My Dad was a fighter to the very end. You can be too!
I asked him one day how he did it, how he lived each day knowing he had a terminal disease and his tender answer is one I will NEVER forget.
He said, "I have just as much chance of living out this day as you do."
Whoa! Go back and reread his reply. Think about that for a minute. He was right.
We don't know what the future holds or even what the next hour or day ahead holds for us. But I do know who holds our future and thankfully so did my Dad. And you can too, his name is Jesus Christ and He is the source of my hope.
I have no doubt that the many years he's been in heaven now have been a wondrous time for him! Dad's not coughed once, had any excruciating backaches or suffered one bit up there! He's had the privilege to be a part of the welcoming committee for his dear family and friends that have already passed through the pearly gates of paradise. And I imagine him laughing, visiting and sitting on soft green grass with his brother, and his friends all alongside Jesus, Moses, David, and the like!
And that brings me tremendous comfort.
One more precious thing Dad reassured me before his passing was "Eternity is a lot longer than our fleeting time on this earth and we'll all be together again one day."
Jesus, my Dad and ALL who follow Him will be reunited in heaven. Oh, what a glorious day!
This post is dedicated to my Dad.
He taught me so much about life, Jesus, and people. He was and still is the most influential person in my life! I'm so grateful to have had an earthly father that led me to my Heavenly Father when I was a child.
Dad's desire was not to be forgotten by his family and friends and for his legacy to live on. I can honestly say he's remained with us through stories, memories and pictures but I'd sure love to put my arms around him and hug his neck!
Hug your loved ones and tell them you love them! No one knows when it will be the “last time.”
His earnest prayer was for ALL of his family members and friends to love and follow Jesus - so that one day we could ALL be reunited in heaven. I pray that prayer now too.
If you know someone or an organization that would be encouraged or inspired by reading this account with lung cancer, please feel free to share our family story with them.
To God be the glory!
November 2025
This obviously happened years ago as my oldest son, who was a newborn then, now has my precious grandchildren.
I wrote this post several years ago and you can sense the pain and heartache associated with the cancer diagnosis and the loss of my father at the time of writing. As I said, countless tears were shed as well as countless prayers prayed for his healing.
God allowed my Dad to live nearly to the 5 year, 17% lung cancer survival rate! He had a rough start and nearly died with the simultaneous combinations of chemotherapy and radiation, shortly after his diagnosis, but the two middle years were pretty good living years despite his back pain and incessant cough. He enjoyed not one, but two grandsons in time, and an entire family trip to the beach (oh how he LOVED the beach!) with his wife, children, their spouses and his two grandsons that he adored! It was a bittersweet vacation.
Ultimately, God took Dad home to be with him in heaven and I continue to trust in God’s purpose and plans for all of our lives.
Later symptoms with lung cancer: fatigue, unexplained weight loss, frequent lung infections, hoarseness, persistent cough, shortness of breath, wheezing.
Until next time, sweet friends,
Brooke
If this post touched your heart and you would like to encourage my writing endeavors, then please consider buying my next coffee or becoming a paid subscriber at $4.17/mo when you choose the Annual Subscription rate. Click on this bright yellow button and say “cheers” to my Dad who dearly loved his hot coffee!
Dear Brooke, this is a hard personal story but thank you for sharing it. No doubt there will be readers who will glean exactly what they needed to read.
May God give you comfort as you reflect . . . and a hopeful joy as you look ahead. Weekend blessings to you.
Brooke, I can hear the loss and pain in your words. I'm so very sorry for your loss and am inspired by your father's heavenly focus. <3