It is sometimes difficult to understand the emotional roller-coaster cancer victims and their loved ones experience. Sabine was visibly upset when she heard that our friend, Dennis, from our cancer support group had taken ill last week. We had known Dennis for over two years now. Yesteday, we heard he had died. This morning, his obituary was in the Madison newspaper.
Dennis was one of the more healthier persons in our group. To see him suddenly and rapidly go downhill was unsettling to both of us. Sabine and I were at supper in Middleton when I told her about the email I received concerning Dennis' death. For both of us it was another wake-up call. Things change in this cancer game and they can change quickly. Only a few weeks earlier, we were planning on attending a summer evening concert with Dennis and his wife in nearby Mt Horeb.
I am writing this because I know that the journey most cancer patients and their loved ones are on will not have a happy ending. I want this life we have together to go on. I want to hear Sabine say again and again like she did this weekend: "This has been my best summer ever!"
I tossed and turned in bed last night thinking of Dennis' wife and children. How fleeting this life is. How important it is to fully live and celebrate each day -- one day that day may be the last day we will have together. This is the thought that remains hidden in my psyche; that the most terrible event in my life awaits me. God give me strength.
Our hearts and prayers go out to Jane and her family. May Dennis' soul rest in peace.
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