Stories about a person locks in their legacy, or not.

We all have stories about a fawn people we knew. Whether it be a spouse, family member, or a dear friend, acquaintance, or even a celebrity. There was something that made them stand out in a crowd. I guess our hopes are that we each will be remembered in love and as an unique individual that was kind, loving, life of the party, witty, smart, talented, caring, and will be missed forever, but not forgotten. I am sure that is what we all hope. My recent experience gave me LOTS of time the think about how people (and myself ) would be remembered after I am gone. Not that I am planning the leave soon. I hope not anyway. 

On January 6th, Nancy took me to the ER and then I was transferred to a bigger hospital for a scheduled surgery, which was suddenly sped-up to the following Thursday. The surgery went well, as predicted, but then I was told there was something else. I won't go into the gory particulars, but, the part they cut out had cancer. Cancer, yep a hated word. No one wants to hear they have any type of cancer. Unfortunately, over the past years, I have had a few encounters with that "C" word personally.  I won't go into that either. BUT, I have not gone through the rigorous treatments some of my fellow firefighters have gone through. But this time I think my dodging bullets has caught up to me. 

I have not met with any Oncologist yet, but I do have an appointment  soon. I was told he is really good. I do hope so, but I think a second option will be in order too.

Now I thought about talking about this publicly, but I really did not think I wanted to call you all individually so this seemed OK at this time.

Over the past few months, I (our department) have lost from cancer many firefighters that I worked with and knew personally. I begins this cancer thing home hard. At this point I don't know if if was caused from firefighting or not, and I don't care. All I know is that I WILL fight as long as I can. BUT, I also know when a fight is lost. I have Jesus and God in my corner.

I want you all to know, I did not write this for pity or sorrow. This is my journey, and I would love you to travel with me, IF it does not cause you any pain or heartache. For some it may make you remember someone you lost and be too painful. I understand. I love you all.