I remember the very moment my eyes saw Tammy for the first time. It was a Friday afternoon about 4:30 PM October 1977. I had decided to attend a High school football game. I was really into the game until I noticed Tammy. She was a high school cheerleader and to tell you the truth I don't think I ever looked back onto the football field after I noticed her. Can you believe that within a few months we were dating? I'm telling you life was good for this young man the kind of girl I had always dreamed of dating. Then one day I received a phone call that would change my life! It was Tammy, and I could tell she had been crying.I could not believe the words I heard next. Eddie I have cancer. That morning she had awoken up with a large bulge on the side of her neck. I knew she was going to the doctor that morning for a neck problem but cancer? It was as if In a moment life began to spin out of control. Within a few weeks we were on our way to her first surgery. I can still remember thinking to myself this must be a dream, but it wasn't, we were in a battle for Tammy's life. The first surgery revealed that she had a large tumor under her collarbone. The cancer had found its way into her lymph node system and had continued spreading throughout her body. Within eight weeks, it was decided that the doctors would do a second surgery. This was an exploratory surgery. As I sat in the hospital waiting room I remember thinking why is this surgery taking so long. Finally a doctor came into the waiting room late in the afternoon. It felt so good to hear that the surgery went well and Tammy was now in recovery. It was after midnight when the Doctor came into the waiting room the second time to give an update on Tammy condition. My heart began to race when the Doctor took me aside to speak to me. He looked into my eyes and said, "You’re the boy friend?" I said, "yes Sir, I am." He asked how long we had been dating and he seemed curious as to how serious our relationship was. I told him we had dated about six months and that I really liked her. The doctor then proceeded to tell me just how serious Tammy's condition was. He said, "Son, she is a very sick girl. I personally don't give her much of a chance. If she does make it she will never live a healthy or normal life and I don't believe she will ever be able to have children." He then said, "the words that rocked my world." "I know you think you love her but son, I think you need to go home and rethink this."
As I drove home in the middle of the night my mind was racing. The words of the doctor echoed through me. I felt like running to escape the pressure! But I knew where to run, straight to my mom and dad. By the time I reach my parents home it was about two o'clock in the morning. I remember waking mom and dad up from their sleep with tears in my eyes. It was hard to speak but somehow I told them everything the doctor had said to me. I remember how good it felt to have my mom hold me close. Then my dad said something I will never forget, "Son, let’s go to bed, get some rest and in the morning we will start planning her funeral arrangements." I just looked at my dad; I could not believe what he had just said! At that moment my mother spoke up and said to my father “Ed your son needs you” My father then said, "Son, it is obvious to me you don't have the faith to keep her alive! "I said, "Dad, please tell me what to do!" He said, "Do you want the girl to live?" I said, "Yes!" He said, "then get your butt back to that hospital and use your faith, be strong for that girl and don't come home again without her!" She must have your strength son; this is not too hard for you! It is time to be strong and show your self a man. So once again I found myself driving through the darkness of the night, but now something was different, I was on a mission. My parents had settled the storm in my mind and set my heart firmly on a course. I remember sleeping in my car at the hospital for several weeks. I had one thought echoing through my mind, “She must have your strength son; this is not too hard for you! It is time to be strong and show yourself a man.” Tammy had not been raised in a Christian home so I begin the process of teaching her what the Bible had to say about healing. I think you can guess the rest of the story. Tammy made a miraculous recovery, and now over 28 years later she is going strong!
A few months ago I went with my father for his routine physical. As we were about to leave the office the doctor looked at me and said, Eddie do you remember the night 27 years ago when Tammy had her major surgery. I said, "Yes sir, that is a day I will never forget." He said, "Neither will I." He began telling me his conversation with the head surgeon as they were scrubbing up for Tammy's surgery. He told me that neither one of them gave Tammy much of a chance to survive. They really didn't know what they could possibly do to help her. But the head surgeon said, "since we don't know what to do lets just go for it lets just get in there and make something happen!" Our doctor remembered saying to him, "ok lets do it!" Tammy's Oncologist once told her, "Tammy you never have done anything by the book!" Tammy’s response was "it depends on what book you're reading!"
I am my father’s son,
Eddie Windsor
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