20 Years Ago Today - Farewell, Kim
It was 20 years ago today. Well, actually, tomorrow: February 8th, 2006. But I'm posting it today. It was one of those times in my life that was forever altered. And it was unlike any other trauma and recovery that I’ve experienced in my life. As the sun rose about 7:00am on a clear, crisp February morning, my first wife, Kim, passed away in our front room on a hospital bed which was delivered to our home the day prior. She had suffered from metastatic breast cancer for 14 months, first diagnosed just prior to Christmas 2004. At the time of her diagnosis, we had been together for three years. And we just got engaged four months earlier. Ok, here we go. Initial diagnosis was Stage IIB . What that means is essentially "concerning, but possible to eradicate." The physician’s advice was a radical mastectomy (removal of the affected breast) followed by a months-long regimen of chemotherapy. The surgery occurred right after the holidays, in mid-Januar...