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Sisters, Oregon
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Harrison has good reason to be thankful
By Greg Strannigan

Marion Harrison has a lot to smile about these days.

Marion Harrison had a year that she doesn't ever want to repeat, but the experience has given her a new appreciation for Thanksgiving.

One year ago last September, she was teaching business at Sisters High School.

She admits, "I was ill when school started, but I didn't know it."

Her mother was then diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in October, and in November, she learned the bad news about herself. She had non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

It was Stage Four -- the most serious level -- meaning that the cancer had entered her blood stream.

Her mother died on December 12 of last year, and Marion began her first chemotherapy treatment on December 28.

She would have to endure two different sets of treatment every three weeks until May. It was a harrowing process, filled with physical and emotional trauma. And then, as a final coup de grace, the day after her final cancer treatment, on May 9, her father died suddenly.

The year also had its highlights for her. On June 12, she her and her husband, Jim, who teaches math at Sisters High School, celebrate their 30 year anniversary. On June 13 their first grandchild, Katelyn, was born in Eugene.

Then on June 14, she got the news that she had been waiting for -- a clean bill of health.

When asked what got her through the past year, she was quick to respond.

"The support of friends in the school district kept me going. All the phone calls and visits, they were always asking, 'How are you doing?' and they brought meals," she said.

"The highlight that meant the most to me would occur every Thursday night before I had a chemo treatment on Friday. The women from the school district would have a party just to support and encourage me for my treatment the next day -- and they did that for every treatment."

That support is characteristic of the high school staff.

"It's really a very close family in the school district," Harrison said. "It's an incredible support system that if you're not in it, you don't see it. But without that support, I never would have made it through. They supported Jim, and they were there during the death of my mother and the death of my father as well."

Harrison also garnered support from friends outside the district.

"My church family also meant a lot to me," she said. "People I hardly knew would ask, 'How is Marion doing?' The number of people who prayed for me was overwhelming.

"I was on prayer chains in Alaska, Idaho, and the East Coast. There was a network of caring and praying people literally all over the world. That people would send you good thoughts and prayers was so amazing."

The most difficult element in her battle with cancer, she acknowledges, is "the uncertainty of it. Realizing that this cancer could come back at any time, and there's nothing you can do about it. I've lived a blessed life for 50 years, with nothing going wrong. But I'll never see my parents again, and the uncertainty of the future when you have cancer is unsettling.

"Some days you can go on, and some days you can't. When you hear the diagnosis, you think your life is over --that it's a death sentence."

Surrendering the need to control what happens has helped.

"I've realized that God is in control, and this has helped me tremendously," she said. "This sounds strange, but I am actually grateful for having the type of cancer that I had -- there are worse forms of cancer to have than lymphoma. I am grateful for what was my worst nightmare, but it could have been worse."

Despite losing both parents and fighting a battle against cancer, Marion Harrison has a reason to be thankful this year.

"I never realized how many people cared about me. When things got bad, people would come by, and they cared."

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