Date: November 19, 2002

My mother, Lorelai Gilmore, the most fun, care-free, free-spirited, extroverted and gregarious person that I know, had cancer. I am sitting here at the hospital, near my mothers bed because she was terminally ill and this is how I found out.

Date: November 16, 2002

I got a phone call from Luke, I was in Washington with Paris. It was 1 pm and the phone rang while I was writing notes for my next debate.

"Hello? Rory? It's Luke."
"Oh hey Luke. What's up?"
"Are you busy?" He said kind of panicky sounding.

"Not really. What's wrong?"
"It's your mother."
"What about my mom?"

"I'm in the hospital."

"WHAT!? What do you mean in the hospital? What's wrong?!"
"I'm not sure yet. The doctors think it's just food poisoning. She has the symptoms, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea."
"You think she's okay?"
"I hope. I'm sure she is. Lorelai's strong and only 34 years old."
"Okay. Tell her that I'll be back there in a couple of hours. I'm getting on the next plane out of here, if I can find one."
"No Rory, its fine. I'll take care or her."
"I have to be there, I have to know what exactly is wrong with her."
"Okay then. Bye."

"Bye."

I started packing. I didn't even fold my clothes. I just dumped everything I had in the suitcase. All that kept going through my head was "Is she going to be okay?" " Oh, god what will happen to her?"

I wrote a note to Paris, a note with one sentence:

Gotta go, sorry, I'll explain everything when you get back.

No time to put in the details. I left the room and headed to the nearest airport. Bellingham International Airport. I waited for an hour since the flight from Washington to New Haven was delayed. I finally boarded the plane at 3:45. I hated that. I wanted to get there as fast as I could. An hour or so later, I arrived at Tweed-New Haven Airport. I caught a cab from New Haven to Stars Hollow. I think that it might've been rude for me to just throw the money at the cab driver. I got my luggage out of the cab and just went to the hospital. It wasn't very crowded since there aren't many people living around the area.

"Rory Gilmore?" a nurse asked me.

"Yes, where is my mother?"
"There are a few things we need to tell you before you see your mother."
"Okay."
I started to really worry. Something was wrong. I felt it in my stomach.

"Just sit here and wait for a while, I'll call the doctor."
"O...k…a…y.."

A minute later, a young doctor, mid thirties, thin, bad posture, hair which I couldn't decide was either blond or brown, with a look in his eyes that meant he was going to bring me really bad news.

"Ms. Gilmore?"
"Yeah that's me." I faked a smile.

"I'm doctor Jeff Mitchell." his soft voice said. He sounded like he had a lisp but not quite.

"Good afternoon Dr. Mitchell."

"Uh your mother…"He sat down right beside me.

"…your mother has…" He couldn't break the news to me. He didn't want to because he knew it would hurt me, badly.

"She has cancer."
I leaned forward not facing him, I put my face in my hands and I started to cry. But he went on.

"Stomach cancer. Advanced stages. Symptoms are: Indigestion discomfort or pain in the abdomen; nausea and vomiting; diarrhea or constipation; loss of appetite; fatigue; bleeding. Which is why we mistook it for food poisoning."

I didn't say anything. I just cried harder, I saw my tears fall to my luggage. He handed me a box of tissue and patted me on the back. After a while, he stood up and said "tell me when you're ready to see her." He sat behind the desk and watched me. He was a kind doctor. For one, he didn't tell me everything was going to be fine since he knew that it wasn't going to be and that it's just tacky to say that, and two, he didn't ask me if I was okay since I am obviously not.

I finally gathered the courage to stand up and wipe my face. The minute I stood up, Dr. Mitchell stood up and lead me to her room. We headed through double doors and then the elevator. Nurse Collins took my luggage and set it aside. This was so surreal.

Dr. Mitchell hit 3 on the elevator buttons. He looked at me with his green eyes and smiled. The doors opened and we stepped out. We passed several rooms and stopped in front of room 312. I will hate that number forever.

"You ready?" He asked.

"Yeah I'm ready."

He opened the door for me and there she was. lying there, sick.

"Mom!" I ran to her and hugged her.

"Hey hon."

Then sitting next to her was Luke.

"Hey Rory." He said.
"Hi Luke" I saw his face. It was as red as an apple. He cried for her. In all the years that I've known Luke, I've never seen him cry for anyone.

Dr. Mitchell was looking down thinking of what to say. Then a minute later he looked up.

"Ms. Gilmore, I'd like to discuss your options."

"Options?"
"To treat your, ailment." He was very careful not to use the word cancer.
"Oh."

"Yeah. There's Chemotherapy, where in you will take in cytotoxic drugs. Another is Radiation therapy is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of illness treatment to control malignant cells. And there's Hormonal therapy or oncology. It involves the manipulation of the endocrine system through exogenous administration of specific hormones, particularly steroid hormones."

"Uhm Rory could you get me some water please."
"Sure."

She wanted me out of the room, its as simple as that.

(In Lorelai's Room)

"Dr. Mitchell, I am not going to treat this cancer."
"What?" Luke and Dr. Mitchell said together.

"Lorelai that's crazy!" Luke said.

"Its not crazy, Luke! Dr. Mitchell please. No one tells Rory. It will kill her. No pun intended."
"Ms. Gilmore I strongly advice against that. Its not yet in the late stages, you can still fight it."
"I don't want to. I want to have hair while I'm still here. I don't want to be bald and dizzy all the time, having extreme migraines. I don't want to."

"Then you'll have to sign an AMA form."

"An AMA form?" Lorelai asked.

"Against medical advice."
"Oh, okay."

I walked in after a while.

"Sorry I took so long ma, the water bottle they had at the dispenser ran out, I hat to wait for them to bring in a new one."
"Its okay."
I had to ask. "So, have we decided how to treat this thing?"
"Yeah, chemo." Mom replied quickly.

"Uh, yeah. I'll just get some forms for you to fill out." Dr. Mitchell said

"Chemo huh? Looks like we're going shopping for wigs!" I joked.

"Yeah" Mom laughed. Then Luke laughed.

And for a moment, everyone in the room was happy. That was nice.