Sunday Post: Couldn't Resist

I know I'm not supposed to post until October something, but I can't stop!

Funniest thing Bill has said all week:

I said to him, while I was chopping vegetables, "Hey, Bill? Wouldn't it be weird if, in our culture, when you got tired of your kids, you could break up with them and find other kids?"

Bill says, "Yeah. You'd write to your kids and say: Dear Kids, Mom and I think you should start seeing other parents."

WHY did I almost FALL on the floor laughing when he said that? He never even smiles when he says these funny things, and I nearly die of the humor.

Okay, in other subjects, he had an emotional experience: This past Thursday night, he started reading back posts on the blog--the ones from when he was in ICU and thereabouts, and he claimed that he either had completely forgotten them or never read them (or was ON MORPHINE?), and he seemed shocked at how out of it he was after his surgery. And how INCREDIBLY fragile he was when he first came home, with the home nurses whispering to me about HOSPICE and death and weeks to live and so on.

Then the very next day, after reading those blogs, (this past Friday) he went golfing with his friends and did 18 holes, no disasters. He was really moved emotionally when he came home, because he recalled thinking in the hospital that he would never golf again. I actually didn't think he would, either.

And now, you couldn't even tell he was ever sick. I'm not saying he doesn't have a handicap of 595. But still, he can make it through 18 holes on a hot day!

Purty purty cool. God is great, Sabu! (Line from "Out of Africa")

In more sobering news, he's been reading tons of posts by "ostomates"--people who have also had their bladders out and have ostomies from bladder cancer. There are hundreds of such posts a day one can read. If one wants to THINK about such things.

He told me one day this week: "Did you know that with my kind of cancer, I only have a 15% chance of surviving five years?" I said, "Bill! Point A: Those statistics do not take into account prayers. Point B: Don't tell me things like that!"

Then the next day, he read me the saddest post ever. A man in his 40s, seemingly perfect health, got bladder cancer, had his bladder out, got an ostomy, and so on, and had the same grade tumor as Bill had, but had a less bad stage. The bad news: the man had had his surgery only last year, and after several "all clear" checkups, one day they found it on his liver. Then this week, just one year after his surgery, he posted that this would be his last post, goodbye to everyone and thanking all his friends, and said, in closing: "I'm sorry. I tried as hard as I could."

If you're a praying soul, would you say one for that man?

And on that cheery note, I can't close without saying that despite all this, these are the best days of our marriage and our lives together. No question about it. Isn't that weird? I guess it's due to living with appreciation for each day and for all we have RIGHT NOW--what a trite and hoof-beaten cliche--and yet it turns out to be the whole deal.

Love to all!
Diamon' Lil