I cannot imagine what you’re going through

My 80 year old aunt has cancer. She called dad (her brother) and said “I have cancer it’s malignant.” I can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to be her right now. There’s got to be shock. There’s got to be the feeling that for her, this is the end of everything.

Or maybe not. She’s a nun; she has faith and friends. But still it must be a devastating blow.

I’m terrible at empathy and am socially awkward under the best of circumstances. It seems awful to just call someone up and say “I’m so sorry to hear you have malignant cancer.” And yet surely it’s worse not to call at all.

To blow off steam, I cobbled together the following image. It’s based on Google’s actual search predictions.