The Depth of Disease

She sent me an article about a woman who was fired by her boss, an oral surgeon, after she told him she had cancer. He expressed concern that due to the magnitude of her disease, the woman would be unable to perform her work duties because the treatments she would have to endure would be too debilitating.

“That’s why they fired you,” she told me. “I had cancer and it impacted your work.”

“No it didn’t,” I said. “I was working fine. I had barely taken any time off.”

“But you were stressed.”

“Sure, I was stressed. The job stressed me out. Traffic stressed me out. My family stressed me out. Your cancer was just one more on the list.”

“I’m sure they fired you because of me,” she insisted.

“Why do you keep saying that? I’m telling you they let me go because I was an expensive asset and they could move my work under someone much cheaper. It was simple economics.”

She shook her head. “No, it was my fault. My treatments cost too much. I was too much of a liability.”

“Don’t say that,” I said. “They wouldn’t have done that.”

She looked at me, eyebrows raised. “You really believe that.”

I lowered my eyes. I had to believe it.