This is my mom and she’s one of the greatest human beings I know.  It’s hard to write about people you love because there so many things you want to cover from the bad times and the good times that happen between you and them. Lately, it’s been even harder.

My mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer back in May. For the past two months, she’s been receiving radiation treatments for her cancer. However, since the beginning of this month, my mom’s cancer turned out to be more aggressive than we thought. Her doctor is now moving her into chemotherapy.

I’ve been private about it until this point, I decided to pick up my camera not planning or caring whether they’ll be good or bad. I’ve seen a few photographers that have documented family sickness. It’s seemed as a outlet for them. For me, it’s something I can’t fathom in words.

My parents and my aunt from Paris, France came to visit me this past weekend. I took them around town getting Dim Sum and showed my aunt where I worked and lived. I was happy that my mom was getting out because I bet she’s been bored sitting around the house. She brought her medical papers for me to read because she doesn’t quite understand English. We talked about things she may encounter during her chemotherapy, which she’s still scared of. I asked if I can take her photo and she covered her neck not wanting me to get her scar.

I finally convinced her, telling her that it’s just a mark to remind us of the battles we are fighting or fought in our lives and how we come to overcome / deal with them.

The scar is how they found the cancer. She had a large throat cyst that had to be surgically removed. Once it was removed, the doctor did some test on it and found cells that was cancerous. Then it started from there.