Barbara Younger is sharing her experience with endometrial cancer with Midlife Boulevard and our readers. This is the second post in a series, which started here. Read more from Barbara on her blog, Friend for the Ride.
I’ve always been good about weeding my clothes closet and dresser, but part of my downsizing project this spring was to make some tough decisions on clothes I’ve been saving for sentimental reasons.
TWICE I put the bicycle nightgown in the giveaway bag.
TWICE I took it out.
Swirl back in time with me for a second.
Laura, four years old, sits on the floor of the dressing room at Belks.
First I try on a flowered nightgown.
Then a white one with green bicycles racing across it.
“Which one should I get?” I ask her.
She points to the gown above. “That one.”
“How come?”
“Bicycles.”
About ten years ago, I turned into a pajama girl.
But I couldn’t let that nightgown go. Those bicycles stayed parked in the bottom of my dresser drawer.
Then came downsizing.
Then came my failed attempts to give away the nightgown in May.
Before my hysterectomy for endometrial cancer in July, I was told, “Plan to wear nothing with waistbands for two weeks.”
No pajamas, so I bought a cripsy new nightgown.
The night I returned from the hospital, I put it on. Woa!
Way too tight. My belly was swollen like I was six month’s pregnant.
Guess what fit?
When I learned my uterus had to go, I felt such gratitude for the little girls it gave me.
The nightgown stays.
Barbara Younger
Barbara Younger's blog, A Friend for the Ride: Encouraging Words for the Menopause Roller Coaster, takes an upbeat look at menopause and midlife. She welcomes guest posts! Shoot her an email at the address on her "About the Blog and Me" page. The author of over twenty books for adults and children, Barbara holds an a MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Barbara lives in a 180-year-old house in the small town of Hillsborough, North Carolina with her husband Cliff and collections of everything from dolls to Golden Books to butter boxes. She's the mother of two grown daughters and grandmother to one adorable baby boy.
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