Quote Page
Below are quotes I've found that are somehow connected to Childhood Cancer, and/or seem appropriate for this website. Many have been reposted from Facebook or other Social Networking sites, so there is often no way to determine who the actual author was. Proper credit has been given where ever it was possible. This section will be updated periodically, with newer posts being added near the top of the page.
"Children with cancer are like candles in the wind who accept the possibility that they are in danger of being extinguished by a gust of wind from nowhere and yet, as they flicker and dance to remain alive, their brilliance challenges the darkness and dazzles those of
us who watch their light"
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." ~ Winnie the Pooh
"Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never met." ~ Unknown
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." ~ Edmund Burke
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." ~ Semisonic
"Though time and space separate us, I have built a bridge of lovely memories to span the difference." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Every man has his secret sorrows which the worlds knows not: and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad." ~ H.W. Longfellow
"For someone grieving, moving forward is a challenge...Because after extreme loss, you want to go back." Holly Goldberg Sloan
"In a world full of people who couldn't care less, be someone who couldn't care more." ~ Unknown
"Sometimes it takes sadness to know happiness, noise to appreciate silence, and absence to value presence." ~ Unknown
"HOPE: Sometimes that's all you have when you have nothing else. If you have it, you have everything" ~ Unknown
"Life is a book. Each page is written as you live it. Everyones story is different and there is always a chapter that will break your heart." ~ Unknown
"What we see depends mainly on what we look for." ~ Unknown
"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou
"Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something." ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr
"A heart that stops beating will always still belong to its family. Death cannot steal one's place or purpose in life." ~ Lori Ennis
"The grieving parent has been through the crazy unthinkable, but still manages to live, love, and laugh. The unwilling survivor of it all." ~ Kerin Lee
"Life is short. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now." ~ Unknown
"Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend." ~ Albert Camus
"Grief affects everything you do. It can disrupt every aspect of your life in ways you might not expect. ~ Compassionate Friends
"When I'm happy and cheerful, my friends know who I am. When I'm down and depressed, I know who my friends are." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Like a bird singing in the rain, let grateful memories survive in time of sorrow." ~ Robert Lewis Stevenson
“We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. “ ~ G'Kar (Babylon 5)
“Sometimes bad happens. Out of the blue and without warning. The whole “everything happens for a reason” phrase is ridiculous. There are times in life when you are never going to be able to make rational sense out of a life event, because there is none. Focus your anger, your sadness and your fear, and do some random act of kindness today. Put some good back into the world - it needs it.” ~
J.V. Manning
"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
"No matter how full your bank account or how big your house is, your grave will still be the same size as everyone else so stay humble!!" ~ Unknown
“As a parent we want the best of & for our children. If they are hurt, we hurt even more. It they have achieved something that they are proud of, we are even more proud. Childhood cancer take our ability to parent, knocks it to the ground & stomps on it. It’s not like a cut that we can bandage nor like a cold or broken bone where you can take your child to a doctor to fix. Cancer renders us
helpless.” ~ Ellyn Miller, mom to Gabriella Miller
"Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." ~ John Lennon
"Childhood cancer is NOT happy kids with sweet shiny bald heads and brave smiles. Childhood cancer is NOT something that is given to kids because they are strong enough to handle it. Childhood cancer is NOT sunshine and love. Childhood cancer is scary. Childhood cancer is dark. Childhood cancers ruins families and lives. It is probably one of the most stressful, heart wrenching things in the world. The way childhood cancer is portrayed, is not accurate." ~ Maya Thompson
"There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." ~ Nelson Mandela
"Memories will bring you love from the past, courage in the present, hope for the future." ~ Sascha Wagner
"People are always talking about finding the "new normal" to live in following child loss. I'm wondering if it should be named the "new different" -- nothing ever seems normal again following the loss of a child. The way we think, the way we talk, the way we make choices, the things that inspire us, the things that bother us, the things that we do following the loss of a child are all "different...." We live in a different way -- not all bad, by the way. We discard the meaningless things in life and understand what it means to love more, to see the beauty in small things, to cherish each moment, to say I love you more. We are a different, changed person following the loss of our child! Even our physical appearance is different! Child loss changes every single aspect of our lives -- inside and out!" ~ Silent Grief
"Play the laughter. Pause the memories. Stop the pain. Rewind the happiness" ~ Unknown
"Grief from child loss is so tricky. It hides for a while, then when we least expect it, it seems to jump out of nowhere and grab us and not let go! Even while driving along in the car just a certain "feeling" can overcome us and before we know it, we've pulled off to the side of the road and find ourselves openly weeping. The sadness inside of us escapes at the most unusual times making it so
difficult for us. We just never know when the pain we feel inside is going to come out. This journey of child loss is the most uncharted, unpredictable journey we will ever travel! We never know from minute to minute what emotions will surface. The only one thing we do know is that losing a child hurts worse than anything we've ever felt in the entire world!" ~ Silent Grief
"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose. For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us." ~ Helen Keller
"If you're going through hell, keep going" ~ Winston Churchill
"Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference." ~ Compassionate Friends
"We don't move on, we change" ~ Unknown
"Life is short, live it. Love is rare, grab it. Anger is bad, dump it. Fear is awful, face it. Memories are sweet, cherish it." ~Unknown
"Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins the day your child passes and ends the day the parent joins them" ~ BJ Karrer
"Life brings tears, smiles and memories. The tears dry, the smiles fade but the memories live on forever" ~ Unknown
"When something bad happens you have three choices you can either let it define you, let it destroy you or you can let it strengthen you." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Note to self, I am doing the best I can with what I have in this moment and that is all I can expect of anyone including me." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Sometimes you put up walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down" ~ Compassionate Friends
"No person has the right to condemn you on how you repair your heart, because no one knows how much you're hurting." ~
Grey's Anatomy
"The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of us, but those who win battles we know nothing about."
~ Unknown
"Sometimes, the things we can't change end up changing us." ~ Compassionate Friends
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart, I'll stay there forever." ~ Winnie the Pooh
"People say you don't know what you've got till it's gone. Truth is, you knew what you had, you just never thought
you'd lose it." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Real charity doesn't care if it's tax-deductible or not." ~Dan Bennett
"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
"When someone dies, you don't get over your grief by forgetting, you get through your grief by remembering." ~ Compassionate Friends
"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world, remains and is immortal" ~ Albert Pine
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." ~MLK Jr.
"You will never understand something until it actually happens to you." ~ Compassionate Friends
"There isn't a statute of limitations on grieving. It takes however long it takes and nobody else should give you a deadline." ~ Compassionate Friends
"Memory is a lovely lane, where hearts are ever true. A lane I so often travel down because it leads to you!" ~ Compassionate Friends
"A new year brings time to reflect on the children we love, those who remain with us and those for whom we grieve." ~ Wayne Loder
"People don't always need advice. Sometimes all they really need is a hand to hold, an ear to listen, and a heart to understand them" ~ Compassionate Friends
"Through others, no child, no matter how short the time here, fails to affect this world long after he or she is gone." ~ Unknown
"The most beautiful people we have known are those who've known defeat, known struggle, known loss and have found the way out of the depths...Beautiful people just don't happen." ~ Elizabeth Kubler Ross
“Just as parenting a child in your arms takes a lifetime of adapting to a changing relationship, so too does parenting the
memory of the child you hold in your heart. This is a journey that lasts a lifetime.” ~ Grieving Dads
“No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” ~ Edmund Burke
"The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope." ~ Frank Lloyd Wright
"Grief is not an enemy or a sign of weakness. It is a sign of being human. Grief is the cost of loving someone."
"Normal" is also knowing you will never get over the loss of your child, not today, not tomorrow, not in a million years.
"Most people take life for granted. Remember it can all change in a blink of an eye."
"If you light a lamp for someone else, it brightens your path too" ~ Buddha
"If we worried half as much what others are doing for us and spent twice as much time helping others, we would all be exponentially happier." ~ Kirstie Alley
If I lost a leg, I'd have all of my friends asking me how I'm doing, how is learning to walk again coming along, how is the pain, etc.
But, when going through child loss, people back away from asking those very same questions. Instead, there is an undertone of, "Gee, I'd think she'd be over that by now." *sigh* If only people knew........ ~ Silent Grief
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." ~Robert Brault
"Hospice, Latin for your child can go home and die now as all the standard protocols failed as expected.....Action
verb.....The child might die painlessly or maybe not....you can now start wondering if you made bad choices as a parent with treatment decisions....the extended family are now waiting for the comforting words that he or she went
painlessly in their sleep and it was almost beautiful.......it's decision time? Please the crowd or be honest? Your decision will affect the next child that just got diagnosed? There is no right decision. There is only the truth on what just took place....it will not make you feel any better to tell the truth, what do you decide to say? This is depressing and sad to read? How can I pretend I did not see it? Nobody will know I just skipped it and pretended I did not see it? I do not like the thought of children dying but my efforts seem fruitless?... Maybe if I share or like this it will start a change so someday enough will be spent in research so these questions will never be asked again?.... STOP CHILDHOOD cANCER!" ~ Tom Nunn
"Grieving for a child is like a slow motion earthquake. It shakes every aspect of your life, but no one else can see it or hear it" ~ Author Unknown
"Every time someone looks the other way, another child dies from Cancer!! You can help change that" ~ Author Unknown
"When the lives and the rights of children are at stake, there must be no silent witnesses." ~ Author Unknown
"When you're weary, feeling small When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all" ~ Simon and Garfunkel
"Parents of child loss are world's best pretenders. We have to be in order to survive. If others actually knew how many times a day we feel like screaming in pain, running away, or "losing it", they'd think we have gone totally crazy. That's just how bad losing a child hurts. ALL. THE. TIME." ~ Silent Grief Page
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
"A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark ." ~ Robert Heinlein
"The best angle from which to approach any problem is the try-angle." ~Author Unknown
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us." ~ John Lennon
"Your life was a blessing, your memory a treasure, you are loved beyond words and missed beyond measure".
"Anyone can give up. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength". ~Unknown
"Learn to appreciate what you have, before time makes you appreciate what you had."
"No matter how bad things are at any one moment, no moment lasts. Good or bad, time moves on because it has to. And so do you."
"Children become adults in the blink of an eye, and do it without asking your permission...Don't blink".
"Isn't it a shame that the richest nation, with the highest standard of living, the greatest world power, the country that went to the moon, has to rely on kids selling lemonade while their parents get their heads shaved bald to try to stop the #1 killer disease for our children? While it sounds like a bad comedy, it's truly a tragedy."
"Nobody is perfect and nobody deserves to be perfect. Nobody has it easy, everybody has issues. You never know what people are going through. So pause before you start judging, criticizing or mocking others. Everybody is fighting their own unique war......"
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain."
"In the back of my mind
You live all the time
In the back of my mind
Every night, Every day
That's where you still play
In the back of my mind" ~ Fleetwood Mac
"Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand." ~ Patti Smith
"Angels with silver wings Shouldn't know suffering I wish I could take the pain for you" - Depeche Mode #Precious
"The difference in winning & losing is most often, not quitting." ~ Walt Disney
"Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives." ~ Maya Angelou
"The shoes of a parent with a child with cancer leave blisters that NEVER heal and no bandaids big enough to help ease the pain" ~ Angela Frank
Childhood cancer is NOT just adult cancer in small bodies. Childhood cancers behave differently than adult cancers, and they and their treatments affect children differently than adult cancers affect adults.
"Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you." ~Mother Teresa
It's not always what you do that can hurt someone. There are times it's what you don't do that hurts the most.
It's amazing how people feel they can judge you without ever walking in your shoes.
When your child is sick, statistics mean nothing. It's either 100% or 0%.
If you force radiation ,steroids, and chemo on a condemned prisoner without his permission he can SUE THE STATE
AND WIN. If you do it to a child it is called "Best medicine available". ~ Randy Hinton
Don't forget September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month...Help bring awareness for some amazing kids
and their families. AWARENESS=FUNDING=RESEARCH=ACTION=CURES!!
"There comes a time in your life when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back is living." - Unknown
SEPTEMBER IS CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH! ~"My heroes don't wear capes. They don't fly or have super
powers. They can't stop speeding bullets. My heroes, they do even better stuff. They have chemicals poured into their bodies, they withstand being poked and prodded multiple times a day, they push limits to find their strength and they do it with a smile! My heroes are the kids who fight cancer, who have no clue what is going to happen everyday."
"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." - Jack Layton, Aug 20, 2011
Laugh when you can..✿ Apologize when you should..✿ And let go of what you can't change..✿ Love deeply & forgive quickly..✿ Take chances & give your everything ..✿ Life is too short to be anything but happy..✿ You have to take the good with the bad...✿ Love what you have..✿ Always remember what you had..✿ Forgive & forget...✿ ...and always remember... that life goes on...
Choose your words carefully, the last thing you say to someone could be the last thing they ever hear...there is
no promise for tomorrow. ~ Unknown
With a photographic memory, I could live in a time that used to be" ~ Men At Work (1985)
"The only thing I can do is go forward. It’s the only place that doesn’t have any ghosts and shadows from the past." ~ Neil Young
"Never say goodbye, because saying goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting!" ~Peter Pan~
"If you know someone who has lost a child and you're afraid to mention them because you think you might make them sad by reminding them that they died--you're not reminding them. They didn't forget they died. What you're reminding them of is
that you remembered that they lived, and that, is a great gift." ~Elizabeth Edwards~
"Focus not just on the unfairness and problems of life, but also on all that does turn out well. Review the good things of the past, and don't forget in the darkness what you learned in the light." ~Phillip Yancey~
"Childhood cancer is like a never ending rollercoaster ride...one minute your up, the next second you're down....its full of twists and turns that are unexpected and unforeseen...and with every drop, you find your heart in your throat anticipating the unknown. You try to close your eyes but it only gets worse..so you do the only thing you can...hold on for the ride. Except with this ride, it never ends."
"My heroes don't wear capes. They don't fly or have super powers. They can't stop speeding bullets. My hero's, they do even better stuff. They have chemicals poured into their bodies, they withstand being poked & prodded multiple times a day, they push limits to find their strength and they do it with a smile! My heroes are the kids who fight cancer, who have no clue what is gonna happen everyday."
"Childhood is about playing in the grass & getting dirty. It's not about chemo, iv's, steroids, doctor visits, throwing up and laying in a hospital room."
"We all know the facts, but they are still worth repeating. It's our children's lives these numbers are coldly talking about: Every 16 hours a child with neuroblastoma dies. There is no known cure for relapsed neuroblastoma. Nearly 70% of those children first diagnosed with neuroblastoma have disease that has already metastasized or spread to other parts of the body. When disease has spread at diagnosis and a child is over the age of 2, there is less than a 30% chance of survival."
"A ribbon is just a ribbon without a face. Add pigtails & a ball cap & it becomes a child."
Before you tell a parent who has buried a child that you know how they feel...or that a loss is a loss...or their child wouldn't want them to keep grieving...or to move on...STOP and don't say a word...YOU have not had to make funeral arrangements; YOU have not have to buy a burial plot; YOU have not had to stand before the casket that their child has been placed in; "WE HAVE."
"Childhood Cancer steals. It steals so much of our past, present, and future. It steals our past because it taints the memories we have of our children--leaving us with the "we should have knowns" or the "if onlies." It steals our present because childhood cancer and its treatment are so monopolizing, ... consuming so much of our time... and energy. It steals our future because
when our children survive, we are never the same and forever faced with the real possibility that it could return. When they don't survive, we're also forever changed and robbed of the future with them all together."
