Fighting the Good Fight: Faith Through the Adversity of Terminal Cancer

By Curt Lindner

Fighting the Good Fight is a journey of faith, love, and Godliness, all centered around a life-and-death struggle for three members of my family who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Starting in 2007 and ending in 2012, life for our family was to see drastic changes, as everyday life had to take a back seat to the daily struggles for survival. I watched my family pull together and do whatever was needed to provide the necessary care for our cancer patients. In 2007, fate was about to deal us a card that would watch my angel walk with God on one side and death on the other. Ida was up to the task. She was ready to fight the good fight, as she would endure more than three hundred chemotherapy treatments in a five-year period. During the interim, my son-in-law's father, and then my son-in-law, would deal with terminal cancer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781449765620

Curt Lindner

Their world had been turned upside down, but God would soon be coming to the rescue. Curt and Ida had not been saved, but through the grace of God, soon they would be. Ida had been diagnosed with stage-3 ovarian cancer, and Curt would do whatever was necessary prolong the life of his angel. He felt the pain of his mate as cancer had knocked down the door to their lives, but through sheer determination, he would help her fight the good fight. His faith was strong but would be put to the test. There would be many peaks and valleys, but through it all Ida and Curt's faith in God would stand above anything that cancer dealt them. Curt Lindner is a lifelong resident of West Virginia, the past forty-nine years in New Martinsville, Wetzel County.

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Fighting the 

Good Fight

Faith through the Adversity

of Terminal Cancer

Curt Lindner

logoBlackwTN.ai

Copyright © 2012 Curt Lindner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6561-3 (soft cover)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6560-6 (hard cover)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6562-0 (e book)

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012915819

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/10/2012

Contents

Foreword

Preface

chapter 1.   1982: Met And Married

chapter 2.   The Wedding

chapter 3.   The Diagnosis

chapter 4.   We Were Saved

chapter 5.   Chemo Starts

chapter 6.   Cleansed In Christ’s Blood

chapter 7.   Chemo, Chemo, Chemo

chapter 8.   Abdominal Pain

chapter 9.   Keeping The Faith

chapter 10.   2008 Boston And Bar Harbor

chapter 11.   Ida’s Sight

chapter 12.   Big Trouble

chapter 13.   Stage IV Cancer

chapter 14.   A Bittersweet Day

chapter 15.   Death Is Imminent

chapter 16.   Picking Up The Pieces

chapter 17.   A Time To Regroup

chapter 18.   Back To The Grind

chapter 19.   All Downhill

chapter 20.   The Trip Home.

chapter 21.   Don’t Ever Give Up.

chapter 22.   The Viewing, April 6, 2012

chapter 23.   The Service, April 7, 2012

chapter 24.   My Eulogy To A Loving Wife

chapter 25.   E-Mails From Funeral Service Attendees

chapter 26.   My Epilogue June 20, 2012

chapter 27.   Acknowledgements

chapter 28.   About The Author

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FOREWORD

We never know who will cross our path in life and leave a deep reminder of the reality of what life can be. As I stood at my kitchen window and prayed for him, not knowing what lie ahead, later I understood the need for those prayers and how God answered them. The circumstances of this life have a way of bringing us to ourselves, to each other and most assuredly to our Creator.

Curt Lindner is an example of a man who found the true meaning of life and death. The strength that he received from God and his loving wife will last forever. Life can be so unkind and the unexpected realities are what make us who we are.

I saw this man be faithful to his wife and children when many would have walked away from the dreadful events that occurred one after another in his life. His love and care for his wife was one of what ‘till death do us part’ means.

Curt tries to put into words the reality of cancer and the hills and valleys that stand before anyone fighting this dreaded disease. It is his hope that this book will not only touch your heart but also give you a hope that God is always present in times of need.

The courage of his wife Ida to fight for life and the struggles of the family are real to many people today. I continue to pray for Curt, that God will use him and this book to touch many lives.

Judy C. Whitener

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PREFACE

This book is dedicated to the life of a true Christian lady who left her earthly body on April 4, 2012. She now dwells in the house of the Lord forever. It is a story of inspiration, family love, and self-sacrifice.

Ida Lindner was a person who always cared about others, and yet she understood that Jesus Christ must come first in one’s life. With a smile that gleamed everywhere she went, Ida lived a very simple life. Her motto was Live for today because, after all, no one has tomorrow’s guarantee.

Upon learning of her sickness, she said, When my time comes, I will not have a problem going to the Lord. I hope and pray that I made a difference in just one person’s life.

Ida endured hundreds of chemotherapy treatments. And when she saw me, her caregiver, feeling down, she was always there to pick me up and provide me with the strength to carry on. She was a true child of God. Through the constant prayer of our church family and many others, whom we did not even know, cancer took a backseat to the inner strength of my angel.

After five years and six weeks, a great victory was won.

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My beautiful angel—her smile says it all.

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1982: MET AND MARRIED

It was love at first sight on that cold February night; I had just laid eyes on the most beautiful brunette I had ever seen. After a couple of dances, we made our way outside to a small bridge, locally and satirically referred to as the Brooklyn Bridge. Snowflakes as large as silver dollars fell from the sky, and we kissed for the very first time.

Was this meant to be? Could this be fate?

I had just met Ida, an extraordinary, twenty-seven-year-old lady, whom I really liked a lot. I tried for days and days to contact her by a phone number she had given me, but Ida was never there. Well, that was what