My mother died of breast cancer in 1999 and I spent the last few months helping my step-father care for her. My mother was a real lady who never smoked, drank, used a foul word, never said anything bad about anyone and she would do anything to help anyone. She certainly did me! My mother was a committed Christian who went to church whenever she could and she rang the bells every Monday. She was also county bowls champion several years before that.
My mother's cancer spread from her lymph nodes to her skeleton, then to her liver, lungs and brain. She went completely deaf in the last few weeks as the cancer affected her skull and the bones of her ears. In the last few weeks she was so weak she could only lie in a recliner chair and play Scrabble with me.
However, my mother bore the whole thing stoically. She never complained of her condition or of any pain. She often got up in the night for a drink of milk holding her side saying she had indigestion - but I now think it was the pain in her liver. I never saw my mother take pain-killers, although my step-father told me later that she did. She was still smiling with us on her last day. God - cancer is a terrible thing.
These things do happen to the best of people Nextqueen. It always seems to be the way. Those meaner people in life often seem to escape illnesses and trauma while the best people suffer.