What do you do when your see that your world is falling apart right in front of your eyes and you can't do anything? What do you do when you are trying to look at your future, but you can't see anything?

I guess we all react differently. I grew up in a socialist-communist country that is now desperately trying to adopt Western European democracy. Unfortunately, the country is torn a part by economic crises and experimental governments. Many people are suffering during this transitional period, feeling paralyzed and hopeless.

I consider myself lucky to be a citizen of the U.S., a country where I can scream and I can expect someone to hear me. I consider myself lucky to be a member of Temple Beth Emet in Burbank and to have friends who stood by me and helped me to establish Rachel's Fund, which brought my mother in California five months ago where she has been receiving the best possible cancer treatment. I consider myself lucky to have meet Dr. Marina Vaysburd, an oncologist/hematologist at Cedars-Sinai Outpatient Cancer Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Group, who nine months ago advised me that this country does not give up on people who are fighting cancer and who deserve to be treated with dignity. I am so thankful to the people at Cedars-Sinai. They opened the door of this medical facility and showed me that they truly care about every single human life.

Dealing with cancer treatment, my mother takes one day at the time. Soon after she started the treatment I realized the fact that cancer was controlling my mother's life as well as my life. I accepted that fact as a reality, but I am not sure if I will ever be able to get used to that reality. Does anyone ever get used to that painful reality? Sometimes my emotions bounce me back and forth, up and down. I trying to leave the reality at home while I am at work, and at home I have the look on my face that life tomorrow will be better. Sitting at the Cancer Center and translating to my mother while she is receiving chemotherapy makes me think that people at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are dealing with cancer patients and their conditions and emotions every single minute. The Center is open 24 hours, seven days a week, and has the best possible care for their patients. People at Cedars-Sinai care about us! They are very understanding and very warm. They try to make my mother feel as comfortable as possible. Mark Joseph, who works at the front desk at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, learned several sentences in Macedonian, my mother's native language. He surprised her one day when she was in pain receiving chemo. He made her smile.

The people at Cedars-Sinai are part of a profession which tries to help and also part of a country where every human life matters. The people at Cedar-Sinai showed my mother that even though she has cancer, she is allowed to have dreams for her future. And any time we visit Dr. Vaysburd, my mother feels that her doctor is fighting the disease together with her. Dr. Vaysburd and her staff are always making my mother feel like she is at home. And even though she doesn't speak English, my mother says she sees the warm smile and feels their good hearts.

Dr. Vaysburd is also an immigrant to this country. She came here penniless, knowing no English and having lost her grandfather to cancer at age 52. His oncologist of several years was imprisoned in the former Soviet Union and the American medication he had been able to obtain was no longer available. Her grandfather died two months later. She came to this country knowing that she had to step into the shoes of doctors like the one who treated her grandfather so that cancer patients never run out of their medications and the doctors fighting for them never give up. Now she is fighting the deadly disease with her patients and she is completely dedicated to them.

If you have to have medical treatment, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is the place to go.

Thank you to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for all the support you already given me and thank you for still being there for my mother and me.

Thank you, Dr. Vaysburd, for everything you are doing for my mother and for me.

Thank you to all of you who brought a glimpse of hope in my mother's and my future. Thank you to all of you who donated to "Rachel's Fund," which is now a permanent fund for families in need and which still seeks donations.

Please help and send what you can to

Rachel's Fund

c/o Temple Beth Emet

600 N. Buena Vista Street

Burbank, CA 91505

or for more information call Rabbi Sobel on 818/843-4787