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By Jane Mullan
Rappahannock News
Contributing Writer
This is a true-life Christmas story of hope — hope built, hope destroyed and hope built anew.
There was a time when Steve and Melody Young counted themselves blessed. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1988, he had received a bone marrow transplant in May 1991. For five years, they held their breath and prayed as they waited for the results of the blood tests and scans. For five years, they walked out of the doctors’ offices smiling, their prayers answered with remission.
That half-decade mark is a milestone for cancer fighters; if their bodies hold off the return of the disease for five years, the odds shift. No one says cured — that most wonderful of words — but they begin to believe in remission as a permanent state.
Before cancer, they had dreamed about and worked towards a home of their own. Now, they again had the means, “but I procrastinated about a house because I was afraid the cancer would come back.” she recalled. They waited another year. Steve’s remission continued and Melody’s fears faded.
The Youngs took their lives off hold and got on with their dreams. They built a house. To find property they could afford, they had to leave Rappahannock County and the support network of family, friends and church that had helped carry them through the Ordeal of diagnosis and treatment. But Melody and Steve knew the ties were strong enough to stretch to Orange County. They had good jobs with Communications Corporation of America (CCA) — Melody in customer service,
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