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 ...

When an ass is so much more

  Body image. Body positivity.  Or about coming to an appreciation for a previously much maligned back end.  In junior high (that's middle school for all of you non boomers), I was given the nickname "big butt Bowen". It was a nickname that stung because I did indeed have a large ass. I tried to mask it, a difficult endeavor since the current fashion (and remember this is junior high when fitting in was paramount) was wearing hip hugger jeans with midriff tops and my disguise of choice were peasant blouses or dresses. That style choice earned an additional nickname, Mama Cass. For those of you that don't know who Mama Cass was, she was part of the Mamas and Papas and known for her beautiful voice but also for her large body.  All about Mama Cass I was cruelly nicknamed at a time when nicknames can really mess with a girl's psyche. And I spent a lifetime as that girl with the messed up psyche. I'm sure there are more than one of you out there that can relate. B
Post a Comment
Read more

Peter Pan no more

                          It's time. Peter Pan had to grow up.  For nearly 18 months of his life, Matthew dressed in this costume. In this picture it's new, just out of the box. He picked the costume out of a catalog and when it arrived, two weeks prior to Halloween, he asked daily if today was the day he could finally wear his Peter Pan costume. He didn't like the hat and only wore it on Halloween, but the rest of the costume he wore daily! You read that correctly - DAILY. He wore it to Meijer (for those of you unfamiliar with Meijer, it's a cleaner, friendlier, more 'upscale' version of WalMart), to church, to play dates and preschool ... Heck, he was three and adorable and it worked for him!  (Yes you read that correctly, he even wore it to church on one or two occasions when it seemed arguing with a three year old about not wearing a costume to church was not a battle worth waging. He once mentioned the priests wore dresses . . . I don't think Joh
Post a Comment
Read more

Cabin fever made me do it!

Like nearly ever person in West Michigan, I have a serious case of cabin fever.  I won't waste your time however, complaining about the two-hundred feet of snow that's fallen in the last two hours. I won't share about the twenty or thirty times I've had to shovel my walk today as gusts blew it right back in my face. And I certainly will not lament about the temperatures that hover around negative double digits making your nostrils freeze together within moments of stepping outside. To bore you with tales of how we have to shovel areas in our yard so that our large dog and can do his 'duty' because the snow is deeper than he is tall and dogs for whatever reason cannot poop in the same place twice, is not what I will share. You will not hear about how when I open the slider to let aforementioned dog outside, gusts of wind blow drifts of snow inside and require a shovel to once again close the door.  Nor will I share how some roads around here are drifted shut be
Post a Comment
Read more