Dr. David Fajgenbaum

And he said—

David, I need you to come home tomorrow.

Your mom has brain cancer.

And I was just sort of like, what, like what mom?

And it's cause she's just, was the most amazing person in the world.

And she'd supported me through everything.

And, you know, I'd just gone off to college.

And came home and learned that she had this horrible form of brain cancer where basically no one lives for more than a year or two.

And I was optimistic and hopeful that she was going to be the one that was going to live, battle this disease.

And she fought so hard, Sean.

Over the course of 15 months, the cancer recurred and it progressed.

And she ended up passing away October 2004.

But during her battle, I saw her do so many things that, to your question, that ended up becoming so critical for me when I got into my battle.

I mean, Shawn, she had this horrible brain surgery where they actually opened up her skull during the surgery

while they were taking out parts of the tumor and and woke her up while the while the skull was open woke her up um while they were cutting out pieces of it it's this really intense crazy surgery they closed it up um she came out in the in the waiting area and then they took her back and um i remember my dad my sisters and i going back to see her and we were so nervous like is my mom going to still be there they just took out a bunch of her brain with this brain cancer

Is this going to be the same person that we've loved and just the most amazing person in the world?

And we get back and we see her and she's got this wrap around her head and a bulb coming out of her skull.

And she looks at us and she pointed to her head and she said, Chiquita Banana Lady.

And we just burst into laughter.

Like she thought she looked like the Chiquita Banana lady.