Skip to main content

5 years!



We did it! John was surprised at last, finally and for good! Mission accomplished...

But, wait, it's not really all about me and my planning and for-once-in-my-27-year-marriage surprising my husband. (Though in all honesty, I am pretty darn proud of myself, because it is no easy feat pulling anything over on this man! And believe you me, I have tried!) It is about the reaching the five-year cancer-free milestone. And about, celebrating life and love and family and friends. And that is what we did - despite a deluge of rain our party was not dampened!

 Thankfully many of the people that helped us make it through that very dismal time were able to be at the party. 

It was a time that proved it does indeed take a village to raise a child:

  - Patti and Don Beery and Sherry White who whisked off to Panama City with Matthew and Delaney for spring break as we headed to the Evil Empire for treatment. And when they returned, went above and beyond, to check in on Matthew and Delaney to make sure all was good.
- And Grandma - my energetic Mom, who came every week to stay here while we were in Ann Arbor - cooking dinner, running errands, sitting at cold baseball games, shopping and shuttling. It was an incredible gift and comfort to all of us.
- Kris VanLoon who acted as the point-person for all-things needed and given. Never has an Excel spreadsheet been such a blessing!

It was also a time that showed John and I how to lean on others and be supported:

 - My sisters, Kelli and Kerri (and their hubbies Dave and Mark) who acted as prayer warriors and confidantes so that I could be as sane as possible (and we know that is no small task!). Especially since Kelli was at the time on her own journey through cancer treatment and is now also cancer free!!
- John's assistant Cindy and associate Rachel who helped keep him afloat at work while he floated on the effects of powerful cancer treatment and the ones that helped him survive the pain of the treatment that was killing the cancer.








- My friends Pam, Chris, Aimee, Kris, Patti, Sherry, Karen, Cheryl, Renee (these are just the ones at the party!) who acted as prayer warriors, home support, sounding boards, sanity checks and in ways I cannot count or know or remember (but I'm still incredibly grateful!).
- John's friends Mike, Mark, Don, Pete, Ron,Breeza, Jon, TJ, Jeff, Marcea, Mike, Greg, Bill,Carl - some of them drove quite a distance to celebrate the distance John's come - are blessings in so many countless ways then and now.


 - Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Jim - you are a gift to all of your nieces and nephews and provided such amazing support during our journey five years ago and it was the icing on the cake that you were there!

 - Aimee you get a double mention here because to John you were then his Nightingale. Once we got home, when treatment ended, the real crud reared it's ugly head and you were there to tame it, calm it  and put it in perspective. You provided nursing for the physical ails, comfort for the mental anguish and relief for both the patient patient and his at-times frustrated caregiver. 
 And last, but never ever least in our book or lives- Michael, Matthew and Delaney - if our friends and family were the support that got us sanely through the treatment - you were our motivation. I cannot fathom what your journeys were like five years ago, and many times I had prayed that I could erase it from your lives. I spent the first few weeks after Dad's diagnosis in worry and anguished over how it would affect all of you, but then I turned it over to God in prayer and truly felt His peace and strength and knew that He was doing the same for you. I needed His strength to help your Dad and His guidance to know how to help you through your Dad's cancer journey. Does that make sense? The celebration was a tribute to your Dad's five-year milestone but it was also a tribute to the three of you because you are amazing young people!

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

The meaning of success and how

I sat down to write today about being cast/boot free. It is a joy to be back to my 'normal' state of mobility - which is to say that I stumble and totter like a drunken sailor but at least now I'm not wearing a big black boot. Ahoy matey! But instead, I came across the above quote and being easily distracted, I began to think about it instead. (Heck, I'm tired of the damn cast and don't want to waste anymore time thinking or writing about it anyway.) It's a quote my Aunt Bonnie first introduced me too when I graduated from high school and it's come on my radar many times since then, but today for some reason it has given me pause. I laugh often, to be sure. I'm like the uncle in Mary Poppins - I love to laugh. I surround myself with people that make me smile and laugh and am grateful for a husband that still knows how to make me laugh. I'm not to sure about winning the respect of intelligent people, though. I tend to think out of the box and...
Post a Comment
Read more

The summer that wasn't

It's July 30. Summer, right? Wrong!!! In Michigan, we had our summer two weeks ago for about 10 days. Saw a recent post on Facebook that read:"You know you're in Michigan when you wear your bathing suit on Monday and your parka on Tuesday." We sweltered for a week or two and then were chilled again. That's where we are now. Chilling at 70. Weather aside, it no longer feels much like summer. The back-to-school ads, commercials, displays and talk have begun full-force. And I feel like I just got used to having the three-not-so-little Piggins home again and now I have to get them ready for school. Delaney has a little longer, but Michael leaves for Wayne State law in two weeks and Matthew for his sophomore year at DePauw in three.  I get the nest re-feathered and damn these 'baby' birds but they stay for too short a time then fly away. *sigh* Since this is the "glass half full" blog of a pseudo-Pollyanna, I will revert to thinking positively ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The "I'll Nevers" of growing older

  Years ago as a freelance writer, I submitted an essay entitled "The I'll Nevers of Parenting". It was a list, mostly, of things I had said prior to having children and the crow I was then eating because of the stupidity of the claims. You know little pearls of 'wisdom' that only someone who hasn't experienced the joys of  parenting could utter, like: I will never yell at my child in public or I will never let my child eat dinner in front of the television or my children will never stay up past 9 pm. I yelled at my children (usually when we were both tired and totally irrational!) in public. One time, as we were in the drop off lane at school with a long line of cars behind us, the boys hoped out of the car but Delaney was insisting on something that for the life of me I cannot recall and I was insisting that she get out of the van. We crept along, van door still open, until I got to the end of the line and yelled at the top of my voice, "Delaney get the...
Post a Comment
Read more