It’s been a month since JMak launched, and I can say in the most sincere and beautiful way that “life goes on.”
I feel like I am still gaining my footing in this “new normal” of life on this earth without JMak. Some days I feel more of a flow through the day than others. Some days I really miss Jason and our talks, other days I feel him with me.
The other day was one of those days where I felt JMak with me. I felt God with me. It was another pandemic-normal day of work from my home office, Zoom after Zoom. My work hasn’t changed, but work is different in so many ways now. Maybe most of all because I am now Dr. Laura Makaroff, cancer widow, family physician, and SVP of Prevention and Early Detection at the American Cancer Society.
My professional and personal lives have definitely had a head-on collision this last year. On one of my Zoom calls this week, I got to meet amazing people doing amazing work in cancer prevention all over the country. After I introduced myself, someone shared their experience with #pancreaticcancer with me. Then I heard about someone else’s experience as a new, young-ish, widow. Some people say cancer is a connector. Yes, that’s true. But I would take it one step further and say humanity is a connector. I feel how these experiences connect people in ways we wouldn’t normally get to connect with in deeper ways.
It is what JMak lived for and I can see more and more each day that this is what he “launched” for too. Jason’s journey is connecting people in a way that neither of us could have ever imagined.
Jason loved people. He loved talking to them and learning about them. As I’ve heard from so many people over the past month, it has been evident that JMak had an impact on people. When I have days like I did this past week, where I share our story and it connects people in heartfelt and meaningful ways, I feel Jason close. I feel God close. JMak is still impacting people.
It does mean something to just not be alone. God has given me a really unique opportunity to share our story. It has given me a chance to be real, open and vulnerable that nothing else would have. So many people are going through challenges in life and it gives me purpose to simply share about our experience with God.
Last April when we got the diagnosis, I could have never imagined all the things God would do through it.
JMak is happy when people are touched by God and that makes me happy too.
Signs and traces 💜
