Walking A Mile in Her Shoes

I wrote about four sisters - their names won't be used because I haven't asked their permission to write about them again - who had every right to throw up their hands in surrender. Between them, they were diagnosed seven times with cancer. Breast (numerous), ovarian, melanoma, I can't even remember who had what because it was almost too much to take in. I'm sure as I interviewed them my jaw fell more than once.

One of them was walking in the Weekend to End Women's Cancers. Just one because one sister's schedule wouldn't allow it, one had just undergone surgery and one was about to go in.
I met three of them the day before the walk at a house on the outskirts of the city, in a lush back yard, where we sat and they told me their stories. One sister didn't join us because she had received her diagnosis just a day or two earlier and simply wasn't up to talking to a stranger about it. Especially when that stranger would tell tens of thousands of other strangers about her private hell. But the other three were unstoppable.
They were open and honest, funny and serious, but more than anything they were natural. They didn't sugarcoat what they were going through, but neither did they ask for pity either. Had it been offered, I know they wouldn't have accepted it. They all had reason to feel sorry for themselves, but this was the hand they had been dealt and, damn it, they were going to play it for all it was worth. I took a few pictures of them in this beautiful yard on a warm summer evening, arms around each other, one laughing so hard her eyes were squeezed shut. It wasn't technically the best of the photos I took, but it was the one we chose to use.
I called one of them a short while ago to see how they were. It had been months and, to be honest, I was afraid of what I'd be told.
My fears were unfounded.
Yes, they are all alive, but that's not all. One was currently cancer-free, the others recovering well. They know too well that anything can still happen, but why does that have to mean that anything bad can still happen? Maybe, sometimes it can mean anything wonderful and magical and - not long ago - unthinkable can still happen?
Cancer went after four of them attacking from all sides, but it hasn't won. As of this day, it's being fought with ferocious spirits and love for life that has it retreating. As of this day, there IS a day for four sisters who won't give up.