One of those calls...

Right before my scheduled phone interview I got a call from my father. He was brief and serious, which wasn't anything new. That was the way he usually handled business-related calls, so it didn't alarm me at all at the time.

"Kortatai* was diagnosed with cancer", he dropped as he proceeded without a pause to another point. Perplexed. I got stuck on that dreaded sentence and couldn't keep up with the conversation. It all seemed meaningless, only to cover up the main reason for the call. "Are you alright?", my dad asked at the end. "Yes"...

What was strange, I didn't feel much after we got done talking. I was cold and callous. All of a sudden the news seemed remote, and I had an interview right here.

Two hours later, reading about liver cancer while my husband was taking a nap, it suddenly hit me so hard. It was as if my mind took a whole two hours to respond.

I spent 4 hours translating a transcript of grandpa's test results into English, so an oncologist from Israel could share his expertise as to whether a surgery is still practical. Trying to push all feelings aside again, too hard to do my work otherwise.

*Kortatai is the way I call my Tatarian grandpa.