Nina P. Leoncio

I was an atheist before. I remember that time, and I don’t have very good memories, so I say to whomever wants to hear that it’s very important to have faith. I think it makes you richer. We feel more humble with feet on earth. People should not give so much importance to things like a new TV, a new computer, or a new car. What is important in life is to love; to love each other. I don’t think there’s anything more important than love. And when we love, we are able to see other things. You can see something that’s superior to us because we’re just matter.

I said I had a problem. So? But everybody has a problem. So, we’ve got to stand up and go. You can’t think that things are going to be given by God. You have to go after them yourself; by yourself. Fight for what you want. God will give it to you? No. You have to fight for it. You’ve got to work for that. 

If I’m here playing, talking to you it’s because I’m fighting. If I go into depression, then I can’t do anything. What is important is to love each other. Then we are able to give something more than money. So, I think that’s it. Love is beautiful. It’s very important. Of course, money makes life easier, but you need to have faith and you have to work. Faith is good but you have to work. It’s a saying that goes: ‘Work makes a man bigger, (and I hope it makes a woman bigger, too) in love.’

To be honest, I don’t think cancer has taught me anything. I have had other problems; health problems. I have gone through very difficult times before. I had a very bad depression in my life. When I got separated from my husband, I had to fight a lot with lawyers so I could keep my son, to have him here with me in Brazil. These were moments of very hard, very difficult moments. If it wasn’t for the faith we have in my family, my real sister’s family, if it wasn’t for my mother, my father, and if it wasn’t for all the superior forces that keep me, I am sure that I wouldn’t be here. 

So, did cancer teach me anything? No. It doesn’t teach you anything. It is just a period, a phase, a stage that I’m going through, just like everybody else does. Of course it’s not easy. No one is happy. When a doctor comes and tells you that you have cancer, and that you have a metastasis here, and then another one over there, it is not easy. But the cancer didn’t tell me or teach me anything. My faith guides me. Only faith withstands such an extreme treatment that everyone who has this disease has to go through. It’s not easy. Sorry.