Natasia J.
About Natasia J.
Growing up, we witnessed our parents confronting all of life’s challenges as a united front. From our mother’s heart attack and subsequent quadruple bypass at age 42, to the traumatic brain injury our father suffered on duty as a police officer, or our mother’s placenta previa with our baby sister immediately following our father’s near loss of his complete leg following a routine knee scope; our parents were always there for one another. But five years ago, our family was severely shaken when our parents once again had to become each other’s caregivers, simultaneously.
On the afternoon of May 19, 2014, in the exam room of our father’s urologist, Mom and Dad were confronted with the terrible news that he had prostate cancer. At only 50 years old, Dad was diagnosed with an advanced stage of the most aggressive form of prostate cancer. By the end of that meeting, our father scheduled his prostatectomy and steeled himself for the subsequent intensive radiation regiment.
The car ride home was silent, the type of silence that is tick with uncertainty and apprehension. A cell phone jingle broke the silence; their eldest daughter on the other end of the call, having to deliver a tough message: Grandma had passed away. Our mother’s sister and brother were trying to get through to my mom for some time, but her phone had been off during the doctor’s appointment. So, after a game of telephone, big sister Anastasia had to deliver the news. Discerning the fact that this was going to hit our mother hard, she knew that Mom needed to hear this from her husband. He answered his phone, calm, cool, and collected; giving no indication of the tragedy that had just hit at the doctor’s. As he hung up the phone, Mom pulled into the driveway while Dad set aside his emotions from the fresh cancer diagnosis and stood in front of his wife, becoming the pillar of strength she would need, and delivered the news.
In a single afternoon, our parents received some of the worst news a person could ever imagine. But our parents’ unconditional love and unwavering support for one another allowed them to, once again, become each other’s caregiver. The two of them tackled funeral arrangements and pre-op appointments together. Three days following his diagnosis, our father held our mother’s hand for the entirety of her mother’s funeral, only letting go to help carry our Grandmother to her final resting place.
A mere couple of weeks later, our father had his surgery. Still amid the tragedy of her mother’s death, Mom acquired the role of Dad’s “nurse”, checking and cleaning his incisions, setting up follow up appointments, and rushing him to the ER when bladder spasms became intolerable. And at night, they would comfort each other as my father helped to heal our mother’s emotional pain and as she helped heal his physical pain.
We understand that this contest is focused on the individual who served as a caregiver to the individual suffering from prostate cancer, but my parents have never really followed any type of norm. So why should this be any exception? It is for this reason, and so many others, that we would like to nominate our parents, Colleen and Robert Jacko, as caregivers for consideration in the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s TRUE LOVE contest.
Thank you for all the support for this cause,
Anastasia, Natasia, and Alexandra Jacko
(The three daughters of two loving heroes)
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