Guest Editor | Teen recalls when he heard that his mom has cancer

He did not show much emotion, but Jordan Chin was shocked and devastated when his mother revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.

The 18-year-old, however, explained that despite the despair he felt, his immediate thought was to find solutions and to be optimistic.

"She said lumpectomy. I said 'OK' and then she said 'breast cancer'... I didn't say anything," he recalled.

"I remember my sister started crying, and I was thinking to myself that this is actually happening, but immediately I said, 'We will get through this.'"

The Wolmer's Boys' School past student said, though, that he became a little curious, as the method his mother used to break the news was a first for the family.

"Mommy had called us and said we are going to have a chat on Skype (social media network) because my sister is abroad. At the time, I didn't know what was going on, and there were no indications whatsoever. It was one of the first times, though, that we would have been talking as a family in such a private setting. Most times we talk to her individually or we meet up with other family members, but it had never been the three of us alone," Jordan said.

"It did sink in immediately, but I was saying to myself, 'This won't last long'. I was saying that she has this condition, but I had to believe that it won't tear her down and it won't stop her. Sooner or later, it would have been over."

His mother, Lavern Chin, said that though her children were affected, they have been a tower of strength for her and great support.

"I told them about a week and a half after I heard because it took me a while to put the words together and the right timing. I told them one Saturday morning. We called my daughter on Skype, and we are on his laptop talking and I told them that the doctor said it was breast cancer. He (Jordan) was very stoic. Stephanie (daughter) cried and cried and cried," Lavern Chin told The Gleaner.

"Jordan didn't even look at me. He didn't ask any questions. He was just staring. But that's their personality. I reassured them, however, that I would be OK and we were going to beat this."

- J-A.G.