Chapter 18 - A Mysterious Envelope Arrives Home
One quiet afternoon while Mom was napping upstairs, the postal carrier dropped a heavy, official-looking parcel onto our front porch.
I picked it up, noticing the return address belonged to the regional oncology genetics laboratory in downtown Atlanta.
I carried it inside, sitting down at the kitchen island to inspect the contents with a mild sense of curiosity.
Inside was a secondary diagnostic report regarding the tissue samples taken during Mom’s initial cancer surgery in Columbus.
I flipped past the standard pathology notes until my eyes locked onto a highlighted paragraph near the bottom of page three.
The text detailed a rare, hereditary genetic mutation linked to aggressive gastrointestinal tumors across multiple family generations.
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My hands began to tremble as I read the phrase: “High risk of hereditary transmission to first-degree female descendants.”
The room seemed to spin slightly as the hidden implication of those medical words crashed down upon my shoulders.
