“I think people sometimes imagine what it would be like to get a cancer diagnosis. I always imagined I would be really upset, and break down and cry. The most upsetting part was talking to my children. But with the actual diagnosis and the prospect … Continue readingCancer experience draws family closer
“I was born in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. At school, I was in the same class with this girl in first grade, third grade and fifth grade. You could say she was my little girlfriend. I would see her in church and think, some … Continue readingFinding his wife ‘was a dream come true’
“My dad passed away in June. He was at home. It was just a few days after Father’s Day. He had been dealing with cancer for eight years. This time, it was the final K.O. “It was also roughly a month before he was able … Continue readingTrying to keep spirits up after losing father, job
“In 2014, at the last red light before going over the Fred Hartman Bridge, an 18-wheeler got me. I mean, he T-boned me. “They Life Flighted me to Hermann Hospital. I was in a coma for three days and in ICU for three weeks. Because … Continue readingNavy veteran calls himself ‘walking miracle’
“I’m 83. Been married four times. Divorced twice. The other two passed with cancer. “I lost my wife, Jewell, on Jan. 19 last year. She was 69. She dealt with that cancer for many years. It spread all over. But if you had seen her … Continue readingCancer takes wife, who ‘never did complain’
“I remember everything. I was 7 years old when she started being nauseous and feeling weak. I would walk her to the restroom and back to the living room. At first, she thought she was pregnant. But it was cancer. And it spread. It attacked … Continue readingShe continues her mother’s life lessons
“I had a lump pop up on my throat. Wasn’t sure what it was. Didn’t think it was cancer. Being a Christian, I really wasn’t that worried. My wife told me, ‘Let’s go to MD Anderson.’ “They checked it out and said it was squamous … Continue readingCancer survivor tolerates life with feeding tube
“Tim and I went with my brother to tour NASA. You get on the little tram, and it lets you off to look at stuff in the different buildings. Then you catch the next tram to continue the tour. But when the next tram came, … Continue readingSurprise proposal leads to long marriage
“We were living in the dream home we had built for our family, when there was this rare flood. We had like 4 feet of water in our house. We were not in the 100-year flood plain, and we did not have flood insurance. So … Continue readingSurviving devastation, they come together
“‘We have to let our hearts break.’ I heard Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., say this recently. And whoa, I felt that. For me, 2020 started in a state of grief. Just a few months prior, I lost my sweet love, Daniel, … Continue reading‘Grief is a blessing when I allow myself to sit with it’