Intro-5. RESPONSES FROM FRIENDS

When I tell a friend or relative that there is cancer in our family, I get mixed reactions. There is generally a feeling of discomfort or uneasiness upon hearing this. People want to do something to make you feel better, but they just don’t know what to say. I'd like to compare it to another event. Suppose you just ran your car into a tree. So you tell me: “Hey, guess what, I just had an accident.” I might say "What kind of accident?" Or, if it’s a close friend, I might even add a little humor: "Alright, Joe, were you driving drunk again?" For the most part this is acceptable in our society.
Now imagine you say to me "My spouse has cancer." There is no set of responses from which I can choose; I'm on my own. I might have the clearness of thought to say "What kind of cancer" or "What organ was affected?" But most of us humans find that hard to say. Few people are aware of the dozens of cancer types that exist.

A more common response we hear is “You’re in our thoughts and prayers” or “Let me know what I can do.”
I’ll continue this topic with some suggestions in my next posting.