Lois Ruth "Love Lois" Griswold

Lois Ruth Griswold

People call me "Love Lois."

For the last few years, I wear different colored hats (to match the clothes I wear, with the words, "Love Lois" on them.) You may wonder why I wear these hats. It is because I've had cancer for the last five years – so, if you see the hat on me, you know that I'm "in the fight for my life against cancer, again." I was told in the beginning of this fight, that this was a very aggressive cancer, High Grade Urothelial Carcinoma and it would "always" come back. When I was first on Facebook, I signed every post – Love, Lois. (Lois R. Griswold)

I was brought up in a Christian home and went to church for the first time at two weeks old. When I was five years old, I had heard at home and in Sunday School that there was a man, Jesus, who Loved me and died for me. – to pay the price for my sins. I trusted the Lord at that time. The verse that I remember basing my faith on was Romans 10:9. "That if thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. In my childlike faith, I asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins and to come into my heart (the Holy Spirit.) I learned more as I grew that Jesus Loved me enough to die for me, to pay for my sins. He died for everyone, but asking to be forgiven for sins and Trusting the Lord is something that each individual must do, if they want to have Real PEACE in their life and no fear of death I have found that Jesus can and should be Trusted. We had a furnace accident with a new furnace on Thanksgiving night 1990. We were told that we should all be dead. I was the only one who got sick. I was in and out of a wheelchair for the next two years. I lost most of my photographic memory at that time. I could remember every phone # I'd ever called, before the accident. I was studying French and American Sign Language then - and, it was all gone. The Lord helped to restore my health.

I met my husband, Gary at Emmaus Bible School in Oak Park, Illinois for a one year Bible course in 1965-66. Gary was from Seattle (born in Alaska) and I was from Schenectady, NY. The Lord knew all along that we would meet and be married on June 17, 1967 (58 years ago.) Gary was 20 and I was 24 when we married. I was his "first girlfriend." I worked at Boeing in Seattle while Gary went to college at U of W.

Gary and I moved to Boston in 1996 and lived at Longfellow Place on Staniford Street. We moved from Niskayuna, NY to Boston to be pable to send our two children to colleges (Carnegie Mellon & Ringling School of Art and Design) with NO loans. When we moved in, I saw that Coaches Joe Kerrigan, Grady Little and Player, John Wasdin all moved into our building. (By the way, John Wasdin has JUST been diagnosed with the same exact cancer that I have. He is just starting "the fight for life.") I love to bake cookies! I used to bake while watching the Boston Red Sox (on TV) play their games at Fenway – and I would bring the warm baked goodies down to the concierge – to give to Joe, Grady and John's family. These people trusted me and I started baking for the Boston Red Sox TEAM. I baked 32 dozen cookies at a time. The only year I counted how many cookies I made was 2004 – I baked over 5,000 cookies that summer. The Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years in 2004. I was the Unofficial TEAM "Mom" for the Boston Red Sox for 12 years (1996-2007) I loved to greet the players to all their home games. Many of them called me "Mom" (Mom away from Mom.) I loved to bake the cookies that some of the players would tell me their favorite cookie and it was near their uniform the next day. Even Johnny Pesky called me "Mom." When he came out to sign autographs, I would find a chair for him to sit in. I remember that Kevin Youkilis called me "Mom" a few times when I told him I'd baked cookies. Many of "the boys called me Mom." Now, I bake cookies for my oncologist, Dr. Edward Crane and his TEAM.

Gary and I and David, Melissa and their first daughter, Emma (Emmy) all moved from Boston to Cincinnati in April of 2008. Emmy was 3-1/2 years old. (She is 20 now and in college.) Emmy was born with 10 severe food allergies. I wanted to help Melissa cook and bake for Emmy. Charlotte was born seven years after Emmy, while we lived here in Wyoming, Ohio. We have been privileged to live just three blocks from Melissa's family for the last 17 years. This fact has become even more important in the last 5 years, when a kidney stone became lodged in my right ureter. It really was wonderful that this stone got stuck, because it alerted my PCP, Dr. Joyce Philip, that I may have ureter cancer. Joyce attended "our church" (Northern Hills Bible Chapel in Finneytown.") She told me about an Oncologist, Dr. Edward Crane, who she thought I should go to for cancer care. We went to see Dr. Crane before the official diagnosis of cancer. He passed the test – I was willing to trust Dr. Crane with my life – with cancer. I was 77 years old (and now, I'm 82.) This was in 2020, during the time of rampant COVID. (Gary and I have never gotten COVID.) On September 1st, 2020, Melissa put up a place for me to write about what having cancer was/is like on CaringBridge.org (a free site that I've written on every day since September 3rd, 2020.) Since then, I've had over 628,851 visits to this site – people who are praying for me and encouraging me along the way. On October 5th, 2020, I had my right kidney and ureter removed. I had always thought that if I ever got cancer, I'd just "lie down and die." To my surprise, this was not the reaction that I got at all. When I was first diagnosed, I prayed to the Lord immediately and said, "I can't handle this, but I know YOU can." I gave all of my fear to the Lord and I haven't taken it back from Him, so I haven't had one moment of fear, all while going through the initial cancer treatments and then having the cancer metastasize five times – first, two times the cancer metastasized to my bladder and then two times to my right lung – Stage 4B. And then to my right Iliac Hip Bone – also stage 4B. With all of the chemo and immunology treatments, I had different reactions – the first reaction – I no longer had any fingerprints on my hands. Then, I got neuropathy in the end joint of each of my fingers and I couldn't feel the bottoms of my feet from neuropathy there. Then, my fingernails raised up off of my fingers and toe nails raised up off my toes. I quickly passed what they call in insurance – the donut hole – to catastrophic care. My hobby is crocheting afghans with peoples names on them and giving them to people. I'm working on afghan #246. I'm so thankful that I can still crochet. I also bake for Dr. Crane's family and the TEAM of nurses that help me each week. I've stopped baking now – because I'm so sleepy.

I sleep all day and night.

A few months ago, I woke up with a pretty severe pain in the top of my right leg, on the front of my thigh. Pain medication did not touch the pain. I told Dr. Crane and he immediately had me get an X-ray of my right hip and it just showed minor arthritis in my hip. The pain became more severe and Dr. Crane sent me for an MRI of my abdomen on 1/10/25. I have another cancer metastasis – a one inch tumor on my iliac bone. (It has doubled in size recently) As I've said before, I have no fear of cancer. I have no fear of death. The Lord has protected me from fear and I stay happy 99% of the time. The cancer is now growing quickly. My meds have changed, with a higher dose of pain meds and different infusions.

The reason that I say that cancer is the BEST THING that has ever happened to me, is that cancer has opened my mouth (through writing my posts) to tell others where they can find REAL PEACE in their lives – for all Eternity.. Tomorrow is not promised for each of us to be alive and able to accept the Lord's Gift of Forgiveness.

It has been wonderful to attend Kenwood Baptist Church. I love people. I call it "peopling." I'm particularly happy about being able to sit in church with our daughter, Melissa and her family. Melissa is very caring and compassionate. She is tender-hearted and REAL. It is wonderful to have people care about and for us.

Thank you so much for loving us. We love you, too.

Love, Lois