Well, it has been a couple of days since I learned about dad’s health. I’ve spoken to my oldest brother and he knows.

When I first caught on that dad’s health wasn’t good I had called my brother to see if he was aware that dad wasn’t well. He wasn’t and after some discussion we agreed that I’d keep him up to date on what was happening and if I needed any help he’d be there. Seeing as dad’s pretty independent some stubbornness wouldn’t have surprised us. That hasn’t happened, it seems dad knows and is accepting this is pretty serious.

My brother was going to be talking to my next younger sister and since she lives at the opposite end of the country he felt she needed to know to allow her to make any plans she felt moved to make.

My youngest sister and I had also talked. Her daughter, my niece, is going to be arriving for a visit with a friend of hers on the 22nd which I’m looking forward to.  The original plan was that I’d take Megan and her friend Maria home to London on the 24th and then stay a couple of days with Lynn at their trailer site in Port Bruce. That has now been revised and it looks like Lynn will be coming home with me and spending a few days with dad.

This stage right now is awkward. We know dad has a disease that can and will be lethal, what we don’t know is if the short term is treatment and a pretty decent quality of life for him or moving steadily towards the inevitable. There wont necessarily be any quick answers.

With mother she had been sick for many years and withheld that knowledge even from dad. The diagnosis when she did reveal that she had breast cancer looked pretty grim yet without accepting any chemo or radiation she had almost 3 years of pretty reasonable quality of life.

With dad, this seems to have come from left field. He says he didn’t even consider that what he was sick with was cancer. So far he’s handling it pretty well. He told me he’s not going to dwell on it and make himself miserable. He wants quality of life.

I think everyone deserves quality of life.