My daughter.

[Questioner]

James, I'll be happy and honored to join y'all in inviting Heaven's light and love to shine for Tessa and all your family and friends. I've recently had occasion to participate in cancer center support groups. One important lesson I've seen is that while doctors make statistical predictions, individual patients may far outlive what doctors thought possible. Another important lesson I've seen is that for both patients and their loved ones, it's crucial to simply do what you can from day to day and let any other expectations go, whether these expectations were imposed from you or from other people.

If such support groups, for patients, caregivers, families, friends, etc. are available to you, I highly recommend them. In my experience the only real precondition was a social worker willing to ensure that everyone got a turn and that the group time was not used to give advice or problem-solving for anyone, merely as an opportunity for each person to talk about whatever happened to be on his or her heart.

Remember to take good care of yourself. This Q'uo excerpt from the Jan 2, 2010 session captures the concept well:

It may be that there will be a day, there will be a week, there will be a month, or there will be a year in which one cannot honestly say to oneself that one’s whole heart is in one’s service. Upon these occasions, it is well to be consoled. It is well to realize that in order to serve, the self must be gathered to itself. And this very often requires moments of rest. It requires pulling back, and without judgment allowing the self to follow that which it finds diverting; allowing the self to seek solace where solace may be found. The very act of making this allowance is itself a spiritual act of very great significance, for in that gesture, one acknowledges also that one still abides, that one still is upon the path, that one still has set the intention to be of service to others in precisely that way it is given one to be.

Remember also that there are resources to help encourage and support your family through this time. For example, it looks the Nashville Ronald McDonald House is at http://www.rmhcnashville.com/.

Another Q'uo passage from earlier this year (Jan. 23) also is one I find comforting. I pass it along in case it might help you feel at peace.

We ask you not to be concerned about such things as the physical life or the physical death, for unconditional and absolute love is with you in this world and in larger life as well. So if love is within you, what does it matter whether you experience [it] as a physical being or as a spiritual being? For when that transition occurs, you know, and let it be beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you shall continue as citizens of eternity.

You mentioned

I'm not sure how the mechanics of something like that might work.

I think you probably won't be able to know that on this side of the Veil.

I expect you'll find both spiritual and pragmatic ideas from this forum (including up to date notes about cancer-fighting nutrition and so forth). I hope that you will let us know more about Tessa's situation as often as you'd like to reach out.