man, my grandma just told me a story along the lines of:
"A scientist took his daughter on a safari once. On the way, they spotted a lion with her cubs approaching a slow-moving ox. The daughter pleaded, 'Daddy, Daddy, save the ox! Don't let it die!' The father responded, 'I can't do that. These things just have to run their course. Everything has to die sometime. And because the ox will die, the lion and her cubs will live; so you see, this is the way it has to be.' Having said this, they did not intervene, and thus the ox was killed."
What an ominous story to be telling me when she has cancer. I hope she did not intend that most obvious of possible symbolisms. =(