Re: Snow -- We buried Jenny last year -- my mom's best friend. Breast cancer.

[IdaBriggs]

She didn't have health insurance. She got diagnosed, and there was some 'emergency' type of insurance that was used, and after losing her breast, and a bunch of chemotherapy, she was pronounced 'cured' and thus lost the emergency insurance.

She didn't have the funds to go see the specialists for follow-up, so when it came back, it came back hard. She fainted at work, and was dead three weeks later.

She was a hairdresser. She owned her own shop for years, until her health declined, and she sold it, which saved their house from going into foreclosure. She refused to die at home, so her husband would be okay living there (he was her second husband, and she'd been a single mom when she bought the place) when she 'knew' the fight was one she wasn't going to win. (The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, her bones, and her brain by the time she 'fainted' at work.) Her husband surrendered the house to the bank and walked away from it about six months after she died.

She was estranged from her children for many years due to her second marriage, and things were dicey at the end as everyone tried to make peace for her sake. He was in charge of her medical decisions, and they didn't like him, so he couldn't do anything right as far as they were concerned. Then again, he was kind of a jerk back to them, because he was losing his wife, and he couldn't seem to muster up much compassion for them Losing Their Mother in the midst of his own misery. He didn't even offer their childhood home to them first; like I said, he just walked away.

Her first grandchild was born a few months after her death. My mom went a little 'above and beyond' in her memory.

I'm still sad that she didn't do the 'follow up' that she should have, and I know it was because of the insurance. At the end, all they could do was try to make her comfortable.

She was a nice lady, who worked hard all of her life, and she died because she didn't have health insurance. People die all the time, and most of you probably don't care about Jenny, but she visited me in the hospital when I was pregnant with the twins, and then brought over the most adorable outfits right after they were born (my baby shower had been canceled due to them arriving early, and the clothes were a godsend). I wanted to take the babies to visit her, but was advised against it, so the only thing I could do for her at the end was send up a whole bunch of Boston Market for her family at the hospital during her death watch.

I liked her a lot, and I'll never forget that she could probably have been around for the birth of her grandchild, if she'd had health insurance.

[notadmblnd]

1. Are you talking about Jenny Buckley?

[spotbird]

2. God bless Tony Snow. American Patriot.

It's all you can say.

[Mz Pip]

3. Cancer sucks

Tony Snow probably got the best health care money could buy and he still died. It is an equal opportunity killer.

Still there are cancers when caught soon and treated agressively can be cured.

We need to reach a point where everyone has the opportunity to have the same health care opportunities that Tony Snow had. After that, it's up to the gods, the fates, the luck of the draw.

[kcass1954]

4. I'm so sorry for your loss. She sounds like a good lady with a big heart - my kind of people.

My mom died of breast cancer 5 years ago. She was covered by Medicare and Tri-Care, and while my folks aren't wealthy, they could afford to pay for the things that weren't covered ($500-1000 per month depending on what meds she was taking). She received the best treatment possible. And as hard as it is to not have her here anymore, at least I know that she died because it was her time, not because she couldn't pay for proper treatment.

There is truly only one solution to this - universal care. I hope I see it happen in my lifetime.