The Caregiver's Response: Our Shared Journey

It never occurred to me that I would outlive my wife Dotti. She was a seminal part of the air I breathed the flowers I smelled the fruit I tasted the flesh I touched the language I heard. And then one day after thirty-three years of marriage the phone rang and her obstetrician-gynecologist told her You have cancer. From the moment of that phone call until Dottis passing took a year. It was a year of tumultuous terrifying heart-rending events and feelings. It was a year of clinics hospitals doctors nurses tests diagnoses radiation and chemotherapy. There was a massive surgery and then more surgery. It was a year of despair hope rage sorrow love and faith. These texts serve as a being-there in language during the last months that Dotti my lifes partner lived as a beloved human being. During this journey I was changed in ways that I would never have imagined. My words are part of an ongoing attempt at healing and hope.