Talking to children about cancer – Tina

 

Tina told some of her grandchildren but opted not to tell the youngest two. However, this led to a difficult situation.

Transcript

When I was telling my family, there was only two children that we didn’t tell. They were the two youngest girls. I chose not to tell one in particular because she gets upset over everything, the littlest thing, she panics over. So we chose not to tell her in particular. And we didn’t tell the other one because they’re both the same age, and they still don’t know. But if I had told this one in particular, she would have been panicking all the time, checking her breasts all the time, saying that she got to go to the doctor because she might have this and this. So we decided not to tell her in particular. We probably will tell her within the next year because I think she suspects something because she had said “Does so and so have cancer?” Not me but one of the other people. Of course, I said “Well you would have to talk to her about that.” Because it wasn’t my right to tell her. I can tell her about myself but I can’t tell her about somebody else because that’s up to her to tell her, but we will tell her eventually. But it was very hard being around her because you weren’t able to talk about anything if she was in the room. Even now, when she comes to stay with me, I have to make sure I have the prosthesis on because I wouldn’t want her to get upset. It feels like I’m hiding something which I am hiding something from her, but I feel at the same time it was the right decision not to tell her then. But she’s more mature now, so I’m hoping that when we do tell her that she’ll be okay with it.


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