A Spitball of Energy-Miss E

Saturday afternoon, I had just enough time to head across the mud and snow to the laundry room to do one load before dinner with friends that evening. I pushed open the door and there waiting for her clothes to finish drying, was Miss E. "How much you got?," she asked while resting her arms on the dryer, engaged in a book. "Just one load," I responded. We began to chat about the weather. More snow might be coming. E was excited about that. She's hoping for Thursday, so she won't be able to go to her next appointment. Her next chemo. appointment, that is. "I'm just annoyed with it now! It's been since October and I'm ready to be done with it," she vented. I'd seen her in the laundry room before this and wondered if she had cancer. I recalled noticing her long, thin wisps, of white hair poke from beneath her warm fuzzy hats before now, but never dared to ask. This day, I didn't need to. Miss E, very matter of factly, proceeded to give me the whole story. She explained how she had cancer 11 years ago and they found it again, floating inside her. Yet she was much too busy for all the rig a more all involved in treating it. For almost the whole cycle of my clothes swirling away in the washing machine, she held my attention in amazement, as she informed me of all her activities. She exercises at the gym every day, plays for a church every Sunday, and currently plays piano for a nearby school's upcoming production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She's a retired music teacher, but at seventy-one hasn't slowed down a bit. She tells her doctors when she will take the chemo. because as she put it, "I don't want any drugs in me clouding my head when I do this play. God called me to do it and I'm going to do it. This (the cancer) isn't going to run my life. I won't let it."
"You're an amazing woman," I commented with a smile.
"What a wonderful surprise for the day," I thought to myself. What a spitball of energy!
Miss E tossed her clean clothes in her basket and turned to head out the door. "You want the light on or off?," she asked.
"Off. I need to go get more quarters," I answered. She turned around and offered me hers, "Here take as many as you need. Don't worry about it."
"Oh, thank you. I'm in the next building over if you ever need anything." How could I ever repay her? She gave so much more than quarters this day. Her feisty attitude and tough as nails determination inspired me. Pray every day, eat healthy, exercise, and do what God calls you to do. That's her life's philosophy, my neighbor, Miss E.