Thursday, July 1, 2010

A Double Dose of Selflessness -- Vanny Mam Cain

Vanny Mam Cain's life has taken her around the globe. She has traveled from Cambodia to Japan, lived in France and England, and crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Her feet surely have slipped in and out of many different shoes along the way. Yet, two of the pair she has worn recently are of the most extraordinary kind.

Vanny used up one pair of shoes trampling down her first diagnosis of breast cancer. Then, when the adversary raised its ugly head a second time, she had to go shopping for a second pair. But, she must have discovered exactly the right one, because as Dennis, her husband, recalls, "We decided to live." He adds, "She has gone through the shock, the chemo, second shock, surgery, radiation, and now medicines." And, despite Vanny's own suffering, Dennis remarks that many people undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments at the same time as Vanny were uplifted by her spirit. "She still has a heart for her friends that she met in treatment."

Vanny's shoes are fashioned with humor and altruism. Although she studied nursing formally, Vanny is a homemaker, and has spent many years selflessly devoted to the care of her son and husband. As Harold B. Lee once said, "The most important work you and I will ever do will be within the walls of our own homes." So it has been with Vanny's work.

Today, Vanny's son is grown. Her husband, Dennis Cain, is a candidate for the State of Georgia's Commissioner of Insurance. Vanny supports her husband's endeavor with her characteristic humor and faith, and is doing quite well, I'm told.

To Vanny Mam Cain, whose shoes have guarded her past a course of double jeopardy: if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow them in the morning, just for a little while. My feet will not fit in those shoes, for they already overflow with a double dose of selflessness and faith. But, I will carry them with me as a red sun slides out of the darkness and into the eastern sky. There, I will see a reflection of your unselfish example, and it will lead me forward into the distance.

Here's to the next mile!

1 comment:

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