Caroline Rose

About

After a recent speaking engagement in Chicago, a man came up to me to tell me his nephew needed a second bone marrow transplant. With tears streaming down his face, this man looked me in the eyes and told me the news had devastated the boy and his family. After years of fighting a rare form of leukemia, they had finally lost all hope. I opened my mouth to respond but was silenced by the feel of my body being pulled into this man’s embrace. He managed to say between sobs,
“Thank you, Caroline. Because of you and your story, we now have hope.”
In November of 2004, I was in the very best shape of my life. A few months prior, I had run my fastest marathon in San Diego, beating out all of my previous six finishing times in Austin, Nashville, Dallas, New York, and Boston. One month prior, I had completed the Los Angeles triathlon, finishing in the top bracket in my age division. I was even in the process of training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with my brother.
Then my entire world was turned upside down.
While getting bloodwork and the necessary vaccinations for my upcoming trip to Africa, we discovered my platelets were at a life-threatening level. Within 18 hours I was diagnosed with highly aggressive, incurable stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
I was only 27 years old.
As soon as The Cancer entered my life, I faced it head-on with equal parts determination and denial. I refused to accept my new limitations and it took me not one, not two, but three different diagnoses and two bone marrow transplants, each with 40% mortality rates, to finally give in to my new way of being.
I am going to let the cat out of the bag: I am not a writer. I am intimately familiar with my left brain, and am most comfortable staying within my logical, cerebral left side. Creativity has always caused a shudder to shoot up my spine, so you can imagine my surprise when I called a dear friend and told her I was going to write a book. And you can imagine my surprise when I heard her response.
“Well, thank God. The world needs to hear your story. Tell it loudly. Tell it boldly. And tell it from the depths of your soul.”
And that is just what I have done.
Dear Riley Rose is a profoundly honest book that will challenge the reader to think deeply about the struggle of life. We all have our challenges; just fill in the blank. Mine happened to be an incurable cancer. Riley’s was the horrific abuse he endured the first 11 months of his life. Some people deal with depression or financial issues. Some of us get divorced, battle addiction, or lose a loved one. We all have our own cross to bear and we have all had moments where we question if life is really worth living; if the good outweighs the bad; if the joy is worth the pain.
I had my moment of wanting to give up when I refused my last round of chemo after my second bone marrow transplant. I knew with certainty that no amount of joy could be worth the suffering I was in. Nurse Jan just needed me to squeeze her hand; just needed me to say okay; just needed me to choose life.
But I couldn’t squeeze her hand. I couldn’t go on.
Then I looked at the canvas print of my two miracle children, who were lying on the floor with Riley. I focused on their smiles and innocent eyes. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the feel of their kisses on my hollow cheeks. I listened to my husband’s voice as he begged me to fight.
All I had to do was keep my hand limp; keep it from responding to Nurse Jan and Tom’s pleas. All I had to do was let go and the suffering would all be over. All I had to do was nothing. But…
The kids. My husband. Riley.
I squeezed Nurse Jan’s hand.
D-O-G = G-O-D. It’s no coincidence.

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