Changing Seasons

A while back I wrote THIS post about a dear friend, someone who until he retired last month was a member of my team, who's wife faced a serious and quick onslaught of medical issues that were rapidly diagnosed as Glioblastoma, a grade IV brain cancer, the most deadly of all. At that time they faced many decisions together as a couple, as a family with their kids and even separately at times.

Glioblastoma offers little hope of a life after diagnosis, the overwhelming majority of people die quickly, many within months. The only hope for life extension is brain surgery followed by near continual radiation and chemo. For my friend and his wife, they faced the agony of trying to make life altering decisions while watching her fade to nothing, literally. Though my husband and I have suffered loss and though I can understand the stress and sadness of what they faced, I own up to the fact that I do not understand all that they went through, but being there and providing what little we could was our honor.

In the end, she was diagnosed in mid March and agonized for days about what to do. To die within weeks or to have the surgery and hold death at bay. Surgery that would offer no guarantees, no hope of recovery, might prolong her life, might not. In the end, many of us offered support, friendship and tons of information, we scoured the internet, contacting those in the know, and sending every tidbit, sometimes not so good news either, their way. In the back of my head I wondered if we were interfering, if we were influencing in ways we shouldn't, but I couldn't get over the need to reach out and offer all the information possible. When you grieve hard, not everyone has the capability to get into 'research' mode, for those of us who felt compelled, we realized in the end that the choice, no matter how much or how little information they had, was theirs, but they should be able to make it with as much information as possible, leaving no stone unturned.

By late March, the surgery was scheduled and completed, chemical wafers implanted and 6 weeks of combined daily chemo and radiation began. They recently completed the treatment and a follow up MRI, with news that luckily the tumor had not regrown. However, those closest know that with this type of brain cancer it is only through routine chemo and/or radiation follow up that it can be kept at bay, a way of life now for my friend, his wife and their family. Chemo and/or radiation for them will be as routine as your morning cup of coffee.

They've likely captured a few months of time that would have otherwise slipped through their hands and vanished into thin air, they've delayed the likely outcome. Thoughts of them routinely enter my mind, I think of those words "may the winter of their life bring renewed hope when spring appears, may their snow clear, may the ground thaw and may the budding flowers offer them life and hope". It's a timely coincidence that as the seasons have changed this year, things for them have also. Their spring is now fading into what I can only hope will be a glorious summer for them, filled with sunshine and long, full, loving days. Filled with family, cherished moments and memories that will carry my friend over the coming years. May their hope continue to spring eternal and may we all remember that life can be fleeting, life can change in an instant and that sometimes, unfortunately, we have little control over the universe.

I wish them all this and more but I understand that one day, one day winter will return and spring may not come fast enough again. That day many of us will mourn the loss of a beautiful person inside and out, and the part of my friend that will also be lost. We all miss his wisdom, his kindness at work, but it's nothing compared to how I'm sure he misses what once was... just one season ago.

Magpie, we wish for you that the winters you face in your life quickly transition into long and prosperous springs and summers. May any bitterness you face in life vanish into the realization that life is what you make of it, life is all about perspective, life is fleeting and fragile, and lastly, life is a gift.

Please enjoy the photos, they are originals by him.