Cancer by MCR

I wish I could love this song. Unfortunately, almost every person in my family that has died has done so from cancer. My sister is the biggest My Chemical Romance fan I knew, and growing up we shared a room. Naturally, I hated their music just because she loved them. I would listen to The Black Parade over and over for years never taking it in. Just after my uncle died, my sister got the words “Bury me in all my favorite colors” tattooed on her arm. She told my parents it was from the My Chemical Romance song, “Cancer” and it was for our Uncle Kevin. He died from cancer. And years before he had took my sister to her first MCR concert and said that he liked this song the best. Again, this did not mean much to me. I never bothered listening to the song.

A few years later, Kevin’s mother--my grandmother--was dying of cancer. In a twist of fate, Cancer by MCR came on my playlist. The piano chords struck me immeidately and I was stunned into listening. I heard “bury me in all my favorite colors” and cried in the middle of the library. I texted my sister about this moment, and I can now listen to the song but only with overwhelming thoughts of family, those here and those not.

Although a lot of this is my sister’s story, I believe it was important to share, because it affects me too, and it is just another invisible thread that keeps us together.