Ten years ago I
married the most amazing man and we celebrated by going to Jamaica for our
honeymoon. We left our all-inclusive
Jamaican resort with dreams to go back some day, maybe our five year anniversary. That never happened. In fact, a vacation with just the two of us
(or with the kids, for that matter) never happened. Life got in the way as did a lack of vacation
funds. Then one day Jeff and I swore we
would make it happen. We were determined
to take a trip together for our ten year anniversary. Just the two of us. We decided that no matter what, we would
go. We were just going to make it work,
nothing would stop us. We even pinky
swore on it. Yeah, we were serious. So as our ten year anniversary approached, we
still didn’t have much of a vacation fund and we were trying to have baby
number 3, but we were sworn by pinkies. However,
we didn’t plan for cancer. Now
what? So, as required by law, we had to
follow through on our promise. I’m
pretty sure pinky swears are legally binding. That’s a fact.
We figured we
would make good on our promise, assuming that I had permission from all my
doctors. I must have tried to talk
myself out of it a hundred times. I
found myself thinking we don’t have the
money for this, maybe I should wait until I have a clean bill of health for a
little while, we can’t afford this, vacations cost money and we have none of
that stuff, etc. As the hospital bills
piled up, it was like a smack in the face reminder that a vacation was just too
expensive. We were barely able to afford
this vacation (after ten years of saving) before cancer came along and cramped
our already un-extravagant and un-lavish lifestyle. But I put all those practical voices to rest. Never before have I felt so deserving of a
vacation. Had the donations to the 'For Angie' website not come in, we would not have even been able to consider this trip post cancer diagnosis. The donation money paid for hospital bills and MasterCard paid for Jamaica:)
July 21st
– July 28th We did it!
I was just 8 days out from radiation.
I wasn’t even sure that I would be able to enjoy the sun or swimming in
the pool, but I wanted to get as far away as I could from the cancer
center. I wanted one whole week to not
think about cancer. I wanted one whole week
to forget about everything we had just been through and for my husband and me
to just focus on each other. It
worked. Finally, things seemed to work
in our favor. My skin peeled and healed right
before the trip. I was able to spend all
day at the pool or beach, swimming, reading, resting, drinking, and
eating. At night, Jeff and I would get
dressed up and enjoy dinner and the resorts nightly entertainment. It was fabulous. I am so glad that we went. It was well worth it. And think of all the money we saved by
avoiding all potential legal fees from breaking a pinky swear promise.
Looking
on the Bright Side…for seven consecutive days I put all things related to
cancer out of my mind, except for the one fellow vacationer who graciously offered
me some sunscreen after pointing out the strange “sunburn” on my chest and
underarm.
This is what I did all day.
A vacation to remember.
a "Bob Marley"
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