And by itself it is cute. But in context… not so cute.

Link via Comic Strip.

A friend of ours has leukemia, and she has to go through chemo every so often. It sounds like a horrible thing to go through, but every time I see her, she seems perfectly healthy and happy. Okay, that’s not entirely true: the last time I saw her was on election day, and she was pretty grumpy about the way things were going, especially because she is also a gay woman in a comitted relationship, and the anti-gay-marriage folks went 11 for 11.

Anyway, I never ask about the cancer or the treatment or anything because I don’t need to know, and, honestly, I don’t want to know. Same thing with a coworker whose mother just pased away after losing a battle with cancer. Things appear normal from the outside, if perhaps a bit more stressed, but while I know there is more going on, I don’t want the details. It’s too much.

This story, told in what is becoming one of my favorite mediums, is a very powerful, succinct story of one family’s battle with their mother’s cancer. I’ve never read Harvey Pekar’s Our Cancer Year, but I expect it is a similar, more detailed story. Mom’s Cancer gives a taste of what is involved in a battle with cancer, and it is bitter. The story is powerful, and it is absolutely worth reading.

My shirt has been reprinted at Threadless.com. Sweet!

If you don’t have yours yet, go check it out. The new version is tagless!