After seven plus years of de novo MBC, nine different chemo protocols plus whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT), the love of my life passed away peacefully this summer at home after less than a month in hospice care. We celebrated her birthday yesterday and shared many fun memories, not only from her whole life, but especially from all the milestones she was able to enjoy during these seven years. I haven't posted recently, in part because I wasn't sure how to keep this as uplifting as possible...but I drew so much strength from this group over the past seven years and just wanted to say "thank you from the bottom of my heart". I join many of you in wondering about so many past pillars of strength who were "frequent flyers" on this site for a long time and then the posts just stopped...so I wanted to share at least an update, along with my gratitude.
When Jill was first diagnosed in March 2017, she was afraid she wasn't even going to make it to our daughter's engagement party, much less her wedding. Thanks to the extraordinary care of Dr. Nancy Lin and her team at Dana Farber (whom we saw almost weekly on many of those protocols and became like family), not only did she share in celebrating our daughter's marriage, but so many other milestones during those seven years, such as:
- celebrating the birth of our grandson and three great years as "Gaga and Papa"--an unending stream of joy that kept her going and brings strength to me every day
- gathering up the energy to move (our 14th time in 44 years of marriage...) back to the beautiful coastal town where daughter, son-in-law and grandson live
- watching our daughter train and run the Boston Marathon to raise money for Dana Farber
- making one more trip back to the Netherlands to see the very best Friesian horses in the world and her being able to drive carriages pulled by those million dollar stallions, after being lifted into the carriage
- raising a Friesian foal from birth
- sailing two different America's Cup 12-meters in Hilton Head and Marblehead
- introducing our grandson to sailing at six weeks old aboard PERSEVERANCE, the blue sailboat she always longed for and was able to realize in these past few years since moving back to Marblehead
- seeing Billy Joel in concert a few more times at Fenway Park--just a few blocks from Dana Farber
- making multiple trips back to Wisconsin to watch our beloved Badgers
Along the way, there were many other memories as well, some as simple as sharing a particularly poignant Hallmark movie (cancer figures prominently in so many of those plots...) or sharing the "golden hour" when the sun sets on the 2000+ boats in our harbor. For all of these, and more, we are so thankful. (Speaking of Hallmark--I will be watching closely for Beth (aka Betty Buckets) and her daughter in next summer's release--can't wait! )
I want to thank all of you who are experiencing MBC personally for welcoming a hubby into your world. Jill and I were experts on "dividing and conquering" and keeping up on the science and monitoring "the real scoop" on side effects was in my wheelhouse, so I was the one who tracked HealthUnlocked on a daily basis (and still do...its ingrained at this point). While I didn't "post" often to initiate topics, I did try to "reply" if I thought some of you might benefit from our experiences. I hope I could reflect back even a tiny fraction of the support that I felt from this caring group over these seven years. I wish all of you the very best in your journeys and I am overjoyed to see posts from many of you that have been thriving for longer and longer periods of time--I will be praying for you! Keep up the good fight--you've got this!
With my deepest thanks,
Dave