How am I going to do This?!!!

　
　
How am I going to do this?!!!

What happens when the two most important people in your life are diagnosed with cancer, miles apart from each other?
　
When I was faced with the challenge of caring for the two most important people in my life, sick with cancer, in two different cities, I had two choices. I could fall to the floor and wail (which did briefly cross my mind) or I could ask myself this question: How am I going to do this?　
I was in the middle doing a marathon of TV tapings for Image & Style, my public access show. Months earlier I’d called my producer to tell him about my husband's ‘illness’ and my need to take time off from taping. The show was a hit. It had won ‘Best Producer of the Year Award’ and I had a prime spot at 9 PM two nights a week, and he didn’t want to break the momentum. The idea was that I’d tape 2-3 shows a day, get several months worth in the can, and then I would be free to attend to my husband.

Two days later my mother called and I had to call him back. "You’re not going to believe this, I don’t believe this, but my mother has cancer too. I’ve got to leave now. We’ll just have to put the show on hold".  It really wasn’t so hard to make that decision. These were the two most important people in my life and they needed me. More importantly, overwhelmingly, I needed to be there for them. Good Heavens! There was so much to do.
　
I’ve been in theater, Fashion and TV for my entire working career including seven Broadway shows, numerous commercials, High Fashion Modeling and Fashion Show Production.
　
Cancer is not only a word, but the loss of control. I was accustomed to being in control. How could I get some control over all this. My husband had just gone into the hospital for yet another surgery, and now my mother was on the phone telling me she had pancreatic cancer. I’m the oldest daughter and the one she’d always depended on to help around the house, help with my younger sisters, brainstorm problems, and confide in. And now she seemed so lost. She needed me.
　
I called my cousin, Vicky who just happened to be in town with my Aunt Ella, and asked her if she could please pick my husband up from the hospital and stay in my home to care for him, while I flew to NY to put my mother into the hospital.

The bi-city commute was on: three days in New York and three days in Virginia, with a day to do laundry and repack my bags.

No sleep, forgotten meals, mental and physical exhaustion. The baggage handlers knew me by name. Flight attendants asked me how long I’d been working for the airline.

But there was so much to do in both cities, and I was so tired, so drained, that I was starting to have lapses.
I couldn’t make informed, coherent decisions. I felt myself losing control. I needed a new plan. And there was the answer right in front of me.