Sadly, there is not one person in America who has not been touched by cancer. If they themselves are not patients, they are coping with a loved one who is, or they know someone who is. My colleague Sister Toldjah has been chronicling her own mother's journey here at RedState with this horrible disease. I lost my dad to esophageal cancer in 2009. My mom was a two-time breast cancer survivor before her passing in 2021. It's everywhere, and it hit me again yesterday, hard.
BREAKING: A radioactive peptide that targets cancer cells and delivers radiation to destroy them has just succeeded in a Phase 3 trial.
— Superpower (@superpower) October 13, 2026
Yesterday, October 14, 2026, I lost my friend of 43 years, Chris Lloyd Camene (pronounced Kam-n-knee). Chris had been dealing with an aggressive form of uterine cancer for the last few years. We thought she had beaten it the first time, but as so often seems to happen, it came roaring back with a vengeance. Since Wednesday afternoon, 43 years of memories have come flooding back into my brain, and it appears they have landed here.
Chris and I met in the fall of 1983 at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) when we pledged the same sorority. We went to rival high schools, and whenever we would tell people that, we would always add, "mine's better." Clearly, you can take the girls out of McCluer and McCluer North High Schools (McCluer North is better), but you can't take McCluer and McCluer North out of the girls. It was at UMSL that the fun began. Most of that fun came in the form of frat parties where we were frequent flyers. It was after one of those parties, one weekend, when her parents and younger siblings were away visiting her grandparents, that we stayed at her house, a big old Victorian in Ferguson, Missouri, before it became famous for all the wrong reasons. We slept in her parents' bedroom and lay awake for a bit, talking about the party. Right before I fell asleep, she said, "Did I ever tell you my house is haunted?" Wait, what? The story went that the family who had originally lived in the house in the early 1900's had a baby, and the baby died. Now and then, she claimed, you could hear the steps creaking and the faint sound of a baby crying coming from the upstairs bedrooms. Five minutes later, she was snoring, and I was wide awake. She laughed about that till the end.
Shouldn't we Audit the Cancer Society? 100 years and $100 billion in donations but still no cure?
— Thrilla the Gorilla (@ThrillaRilla369) October 14, 2026
For many reasons, neither of us made it through that first attempt at college, so like a lot of 20-somethings back in the day, we went to work. I began what would become 30 years as a pharmacy technician, and she did a few things before landing in places that assist those with disabilities, like Goodwill and Paraquad. It was a natural fit for her, as her mother suffered from MS, and at an early age, she had to help out around the house with her younger sister and brother.
We had a usual hangout: Al's, run by a little old Italian guy who barely spoke English. It was there that we added three more to the two of us. Becky and Chris became Becky, Chris, Cheryl, Lenette, and Debbie. Now that I think about it, along with a few others, we were "Friends" before there was "Friends." The five of us became an extended family, young women learning to be on our own, and getting each other through our 20s and part of our 30s. We navigated new apartments, new and old cars, new and old jobs, being broke, and plenty of bad dates.
Now, in later years, we have gotten each other through marriage and children. Our lives have taken all of us in different directions, but we always managed to check in with each other. Sadly, within the last few weeks, as Chris's condition worsened, we all came back together. I wish I had room to tell more stories, so people could know the person that I did.
I guess it's the political writer in me. But I wonder how young people like Gen Zers will ever learn to cultivate and know the joy of lifelong friendships like this when the only thing they know is communicating with other people online? The only way they will do that is to take the advice of many, and get outside and "touch some grass," along with some actual human beings.
Now, I am thinking of her family. Her husband Tim and her 17-year-old son Lee. That's way too young to lose your mom, along with her brother and sister-in-law, and her sister. In a few days, so many of us will come together to say our final goodbyes. I am pretty sure that Chris would want us all to tell stories and laugh. I hope that is exactly what will happen.
So, rest easy, my sister. I think I can misbehave enough for both of us from here.
JUST IN: Bristol Myers Squibb announces its experimental cancer drug RYZ101 significantly slowed tumor progression in a Phase 3 trial.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) October 14, 2026
