Important Milestone Dates Focus: Over the past few days, Sandra and I went away to Brugges for the weekend to celebrate our upcoming 35th wedding anniversary, which is on the 27th of February.
Back in early December, just after the first consultant conducted a physical examination and he confirmed that he considered cancer to be present, but ahead of the subsequent scans and later prognosis confirmation, I had a day where ‘important milestone dates’ were in the forefront of my mind. My only personal reference was the brief and brutal cancer diagnosis and death of my mother, who died less than 7 weeks after her official diagnosis. That same timeframe almost matched the time between my first official confirmation that something was there and then being given the confirmed prognosis. During that early December period, the thoughts in my head went to the possibility of a very short remaining timeframe for my life. I absolutely wondered whether I would be able to celebrate my 35 wedding anniversary at the end of February - nearly 3-months away. If that, then would I see my 54th birthday in May? Would I be there to help Sandra celebrate her next birthday, the children theirs, the grandkids theirs and on and on the thought process went, and still does.
Sandra and I have enjoyed a number of the music documentaries that have been made and one of those covered the life to date of the multi-talented music industry giant, David Foster. During that documentary, he made reference to his quest of creating a Broadway hit show and adding a Tony to his long list of awards. One of the particular aspects he referenced was, not knowing how many more summers he had left, how many more Christmases and the like; that has replayed in my mind since watching it around mid-2022, before I had any awareness of what the end of 2022 / start of 2023 would bring.
The relevance of that? It is to highlight the importance of key dates in all of our lives. The birthdays, anniversaries, seasonal dates, should all be marked and celebrated as best we can, as they all carry references to important things in each of our lives. None of us know exactly how many more of these we will get to celebrate with those that are close to us. Those people within our family and friends circle have helped make our lives more enjoyable and we should take time to mark them and enjoy them.
For me personally, It has been nice to get to this very important milestone and be able to do something to mark us reaching this point in our shared journey. The weekend itself kept the growing impact of the cancer-related declining health to the fore, as it proved more challenging to walk around the beautiful streets of Brugge and soak up the centuries of history and superb architecture. We adjusted and made the most of it, whilst also taking time to rest in the hotel room and get ready for the evenings.
To get to this point, with Sandra by my side for so many years, is a great reminder of the importance of key people. Those that have been there through everything and those that will be there as the cancer removes more and more ability to do the things that I have, up to recently, regarding as normal and all possible.
The weekend has been a nice stint of brightness, within a darkening phase of my life. More memories created and taking the time to acknowledge this has been a good thing to be able to do. I hope that those reading this, whether you are in the same situation, or not, take the time to do the same; celebrate what you have, and those that have helped you get to where you are, supporting and guiding you along the way. Do not let complacency become your ‘norm’.
Thank you for taking the time out of your lives to read this latest update and insight.
