Saying Goodbye

[Update] Today's Salt Lake Tribune includes an obituary for Mary Canzater. She died Tuesday night at the age of 57, after a five-month battle with cancer.

Just before doctors informed her that the bowel cancer which had been successfully removed 10 years before had returned, she sat in on a discussion about her son, Chris Hutcherson's battle with cancer, which formed the climax of the City Weekly story, Dying to Live, published last summer.

Chris wanted to pursue a radical new chemo therapy treatment to continue his six-year-long battle with his rare form of cancer. Mary had her reservations about the new treatment, but she was always there, fighting in her son's corner.

Watching her downcast eyes, the sadness on her face as her son struggled to make sense of the medical opinions and the emotional arguments made by hospice employees he was then being advised by, it was striking how much the love she had for her son shone from her features that morning, even at what must have been one of her darker days.

Chris continues to battle his cancer, although it appears he has opted not to continue with chemo therapy. This Saturday his fight will be put aside as he buries his mother at Memorial Estates. (Stephen Dark)