WENATCHEE, Wash. — Why one family must deal with one tragic situation after another while others enjoy life with relatively little pain is a question Cheryl Jedlow intends to ask God when she gets a chance.

Cheryl Jedlow, a former cancer care nurse, was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer last October. Her husband, Leo, was hospitalized with terminal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — in January and is now in a 24-hour-a-day care facility. Their oldest of three daughters, Jackie, died of leukemia in 2005.

“Here we are, a strong Christian family, and for all this to happen, it’s hard not to ask why,” said Cheryl, 53. She sat in the living room of her Garnet Place home, surrounded by daughters, Lisa, 15, a Wenatchee High School freshman, and Jenny, 13, a Foothills Middle School eighth-grader; and son, Jonathan, 22, a 2005 WHS graduate. Another son by a previous marriage, Eric Campbell, 32, lives in Bellevue and is a Seattle police officer.

“I try to look at things in the positive. I have my family and my faith. That’s all that gets me up some mornings,” she said. She said she knows she will one day learn the reason why life has been so hard these last few years, even if it has to come after her own passing when she’ll see her daughter, Jackie, again.

There is sadness in her voice. And tears stream down her face, especially as she talks about the loss of her daughter. There are unanswerable questions of why, echoed by the entire family. But there is no self-pity.

“You take life for granted and then one day something happens and everything is different,” she said. Her priorities these days, she said, are relationships with her family, with God, and with the many people who offer help.

“I think it’s unfair,” said Lisa, who does most of her high school classes online so she can stay and help at home. “Nobody else has to go through this.”

Of course there are others. Cheryl said she has met many others who have suffered great loss. Many drop by to wish her well and share their stories. Some bring a meal.

“It’s a constant struggle psychologically. Sometimes you wake up angry,” added Jonathan, who left college in Independence, Mo., to return to Wenatchee and care for the family. He plans to return to Missouri next month, where his wife is still in school, but has already thought about how he will care for his younger sisters if their parents die before they finish school. “You wonder, why was this family chosen? Mom has been taking care of people all her life. It’s a sad irony.”

There was a good long period when life was smooth sailing for the family. Cheryl and Leo had four bright, healthy children. The family moved to Wenatchee 13 years ago from Shoreline to enjoy a slower-paced life. Cheryl put her career as a nurse at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center aside to take a less stressful job as youth director for Calvary Bible Church, where the family are members. Leo found a good job in sales and later as a research assistant at the Washington State University Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center.

But life took an unexpected turn six years ago when Jackie was diagnosed with leukemia. Cheryl thinks now she should have seen the signs earlier than she did. After all, she had worked as a nurse in one of the nation’s best known cancer centers. Jackie, 13 at the time, had become very weak and nauseated. Her gums bled when she brushed her teeth. Her head would bleed when she scratched her head. Cheryl took her to the doctor who sent her to Children’s Hospital in Seattle for more tests.

“I thought we’d go there and come home that night,” Cheryl recalled. “Instead, we didn’t see home again for three months.”

Doctors determined Jackie’s only chance for survival was a bone marrow transplant. It turned out her younger sister, Jenny, was a perfect match for the transplant. Jackie, Cheryl and Jenny spent most of 2004 living at the hospital or the Ronald McDonald House through two bone marrow transplants that failed to stop the cancer. Lisa also came to live with them during the second transplant, while Leo stayed in Wenatchee to work and see Jonathan through his senior year at high school. The children were forced to grow up fast and learned to help out early, Cheryl said.

After the second transplant failed, nothing more could be done. Jackie died at home June 5, 2005.

Jenny said she remembers walking into Jackie’s bedroom that morning when she died.

“Mom told me to go back to bed. Then she told me Jackie had died,” she said.

“Nothing prepares you for the death of a child,” Cheryl said.

Leo started complaining of strange sensations in his fingers the following year. Within a few months, he had problems holding things in his hands. He was diagnosed with ALS that August. It is a progressive disease that attacks cells in the brain and spine, and leads to total paralysis and death. There is no cure.

Over the last two years the disease has progressed to the point that Leo can no longer walk up and down the stairs in the family’s two-story home. He could lose his balance and fall at any time. Cheryl and the girls tried to care for him, but feared for his safety.

“He’s a pretty big guy. We couldn’t pick him up if he fell,” Cheryl said.

Jonathan, who had married, started college and signed a contract to join the U.S. Army, decided to come home in December to care for his father. He was able to get an extension on his military contract and continue his final year at a community college online. By January, it had become clear Leo would need full-time care in a hospital. Leo moved from Central Washington Hospital to the Amber Waves Adult Family Home on Squilchuck Road earlier this week.

Cheryl, meanwhile, had been feeling run down and sick for much of the past year. She went to see doctors, but they attributed the problems to stress and menopause. She went back, and tests were finally performed last October. Cheryl was told she had a 6-inch cancerous tumor in her colon. The cancer had already spread to her liver and other organs. It is considered terminal.

Cheryl is on her third round of chemotherapy treatments and doctors say she is responding well. If the cancer continues to shrink, her doctors have told her they will send her to Seattle for much more aggressive treatment, including radiation and surgery.

Cheryl said, if she survives, she’d like to take the girls to a warmer climate where they can create something new and happy.

“They don’t have a lot of good memories here. Life hasn’t been normal for them,” she said. For now, it’s difficult to make any plans. “I live day to day, because I don’t know what things will be like in a few days.”