THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

   Long before I learned of Wizard of Oz, in following the yellow brick road, I learned 

what it meant to follow the yellow line. In the children's ward, following the "yellow line" 

was not a brick road that led you to a wonderful Wizard. Instead it led you to blood 

 tests, needles and smells of alcohol. The red line led you to Xrays and radiation tables

 where you could not move while your skin became seared like wood left from a house

 fire. The "blue line" led you to inpatient, where you didn’t yet understand how an IV 

was going to give you poison chemicals that would not just kill cancer cells but also

  those cells that were made to help you grow into a healthy young child, those that 

were meant to see you into adulthood. I always have loved Wizard of OZ, many do.

 My infatuation came from the courage of Dorothy. Like me, she was thrown into a

 world of the unknown. She did not know she would encounter the land of Munchkin 

land, where she would continue her journey with only her trusted ToTo along.

 She bravely continued on the path to find a Scarecrow without brains, a Tin Man

without a heart and a Cowardly Lion who needed courage. Again, like Dorothy, I had no 

choice on the path that cancer led me to. Yet, because of this road, I learned empathy 

for the other children in this “Munchkin Land” who were fighting for life.

“Chemo brain” is now a known side effect of receiving chemotherapy. In 1968  it was 

not yet understood. Like the Scarecrow, I tried my best to learn all I could, to overcome

the things that were hard for me to learn and in that process I learned more than the

average child. Not about History or Geography, not about Math but about thoughts and

feelings, pain and healing, well beyond my years. Like the Tin man, I found a heart, not 

made bigger because of the medications given to me but because I saw tears and love

for people I barely knew. I understood tears were not always for sad times but also for  

the news that a child was going home, that cancer had been eliminated from the 

family’s world. I overcame a shyness and advanced to understanding a love so deep

 that it sometimes meant parents went home forever without their child so as not to 

watch them suffer from a disease they could not overcome. Last of all, came the 

courage. Courage like the Lion. I did not have a choice to say no to what lay ahead. 

Instead I tried not to cry as much when I went into treatment without my parents.. I 

tried hard to be brave even though I was “afraid of spooks”. When I could not go home 

for twelve weeks, I realized like Dorothy, I needed all these things I endured so that I 

too, could follow the yellow path that would make my road home possible. I like to 

think, because of this unorthodox childhood, Dorothy and I had a lot of things in 

common. All these elements, The Brain, the Heart, the Courage I received over the 

years made me similar to Dorothy. These are the elements that have made me into the

whole woman I am today. It was many years before I made this comparison between

 myself and the Wizard of Oz. Each year I watched this classic movie at my Aunt Lee 

Lee's home. It was a yearly event that included a sleepover at her home, the same 

 home my Mother grew up in. Back in those years a show was watched once a year. 

Each year as I watched, when Technicolor added such a vibrance to the film, I gained 

understanding about myself. I had all these traits Dorothy possessed, those she 

gathered on her journeyed to 0z. Although she had all her faith in the Wizard to get 

her home, neither of us needed the magic of a wizard to realize that not only would we

 eventually go home, that as she clicked her heels three times, I waited twelve weeks 

but we both would understand the meaning of

"THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

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