What Cancer Can't Take: Love, Memories, Laughter, and Purpose

TakeawaysCancer takes a lot, and it is okay to say so. It still does not get to take everything, including love, memories, laughter, friendship, and purpose.Grief and joy can live side by side. You can miss someone terribly and still smile at a ridiculous memory.Feeling guilty for enjoying life again after loss is common in grief, and it can ease with time. It is okay to laugh, celebrate a birthday, and take the trip.You do not have to fix someone's situation to make a difference in it. Showing up, listening, and sitting beside them is often enough.Small acts of support, like a gas card, a grocery gift card, a comfort backpack, or a text message, can tell someone they are not walking through a cancer journey alone.Even in the middle of something you did not choose, you still get to choose what comes next.Summary of the episodeAs Childhood Cancer Awareness Month closes and Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, Kayla Keenan turns the usual conversation around. Instead of listing what cancer takes from patients, caregivers, and families, she asks what cancer can't take. Drawing on her own cancer journey and ten years of working with INDY Foundation, she shares a list of things that remain, and sometimes grow stronger, through hard seasons: love, memories, laughter, friendship, purpose, and community.Kayla is direct about the loss. Cancer took her husband, Kyle, along with time, energy, and security, and she says so plainly. She also talks about what it left behind: a new perspective, deeper relationships, and a strong desire to help others walking the same road. She opens up about the guilt that came with feeling joy again, including when she started dating after Kyle's death, and reminds listeners that it is okay to laugh while you are grieving.Kayla also explains how INDY Foundation puts this into practice. A gas card, a grocery gift card, a backpack filled with comfort items, or a simple text can send a message that someone is seen. She shares what she watched in Kyle's final days, when friends showed up and sat beside him without needing to fix anything, and she encourages listeners to make cancer support about the people behind the diagnosis, from siblings and parents to teachers and friends.The episode closes with a message to anyone in the middle of their own hard chapter. Cancer may change your story, but it does not get to write the whole thing. Kayla returns to Kyle's mantra, "I'm not done yet," and invites listeners to take what cancer taught them and use it to leave something beautiful behind.INDY is short for "I'm Not Done Yet," a phrase often said by the late Kyle Strand during his courageous battle with colon cancer. Kyle's four-year journey was both extremely challenging and profoundly beautiful. Though he lost his battle in July 2017, his legacy lives on through his two dying wishes: to establish the INDY Foundation and to inspire others to live every day to its fullest. In August 2017, the INDY Foundation was born, continuing Kyle's mission to support and uplift cancer warriors everywhere. Find more information here: www.indy-foundation.orgFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/ImNotDoneYetMNInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/indyfoundation/Join our INDY Tribe - Inner Circle FB Group. A group for those affected by cancer.https://www.facebook.com/groups/202854020588761