THE BIG C STRIKES AGAIN

My goodness, just when I think the world couldn't get any more awful, it does. The big c has struck a relative in what is probably the prime of his life and things don't look good, not at all. He has stage 3 or 4 cancer of the lung, but not really cancer of the lung, it's an opportunistic cancer that has taken up residence in his lung, left, for no other reason then it is a vulnerable spot due to repeated lung infections over the years. Just goes to show that not even the rich and religiously righteous are immune from health tragedies. Not your typical rich, mind you, this man has worked for everything he has since he was a teenager. He was not just good to his parents he was a saint. He helps wherever he can. He's cheerful and upbeat and funny and fun to be around. A bit of a dinosaur when it comes to sexual boundaries as they are defined by todays standards but not a perve in any sense of the word and certainly not inappropriate in the extreme - the man likes his jokes. Which makes this whole cancer thing all the more tragic. It's one thing when some old crab gets sick, it's entirely another when the person getting sick is fun to be around and we all know that the last thing this person wants to do is lay around in bed feeling like warmed over dog poop and dying by inches. I've known this person for almost all of my life. He married my half-sister when I was in the 5th grade and I am well past my fifth decade. I've seen their marriage go through terrific time and not so terrific. This is the time of their lived when "things" were pretty darn swell; when retirement was just about there and loads of money were in the bank and they could really start living. Travelling and visiting and viewing and learning about the world.  And now this stupid cancer thing is going to spoil all that. At the least it will derail plans to travel for a good long time; time that will be spent going from one doctor appointment to another and one treatment to another and gulping one pill after another. Nothing will ever be the same as it was. Life has been exposed as fragile and no amount of religion or money can fix that and no amount of input from an oncologist can make life any less fragile. We are all doing the only thing that is rational - we are all crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.