Becky L.

About Becky L.

This time last year was the toughest time of my life. I lost my hero at the end of February 2020. My dad had been battling Stage 4 Prostate cancer for years, and since that last November, it had finally taken hold of his body. At age 29 my entire role had changed, and I went from his baby girl to his caregiver, his advocate, his bodyguard, and his guide. We struggled together as a team. This very independent, selfless, and wonderful human became dependent and vulnerable, and it was my job to protect him and be there for him with all that I had in me. When I look back at everything that was going on last year I’m baffled that any one person could do it alone…all the paperwork, all the hoops we had to jump through as he was rapidly declining and could no longer teach at his college, the caregiver that stole his identity; you name it, we went through it. My grandmother would tell me that I was my father’s guardian Angel. The silver-lining is that my dad chose me and trusted me to be his guardian. We grew closer those last 3 months of his life than ever before. And as a young woman, I grew much stronger and wiser from this experience. I still miss him more than anything, and it was the most exhausting, painful, stressful time of my life. My hair fell out, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I still had to maintain my full-time career, but I would do it all over again for him in a heartbeat. Every day I was with him he would say in his soft voice, “Thank you, Beck” and it made it all worth it. He was a warrior and I was simply fighting at his side in his final battle. I’m thankful for the lessons and the strength that I had developed to be the exact person my father needed me to be.