My Love

Charlie,

My Love

Husband fought hard...he was truly a fighter.  He was first diagnosed with cancer in 2010 (colon cancer).  Husband, Charlie, completed the chemo treatments and went regularly for his scheduled appointments.  In 2017, Cancer, the ugly beast it is, returned.  Surgery at Duke, more chemo treatments, chemo quit working, went to Cancer Treatments of America and was advised to stay at Duke, started new chemo treatment only to find out this chemo wasn't working, had embolization radiation only this did not work, so began a third chemo treatment, "The Hail Mary" as his oncologist referred to this as.  Charlie took 8 pills of this chemo and then we had to go to the hospital.  We were at the hospital for 3 nights and he came home with Hospice Care.  Charlie passed away the day before Thanksgiving.  My aunt and I were both holding his hands as he  took his last breath. He fought for so hard to live.

Charlie and I were married for 37 years; not all glorious years at first, but we learned to navigate our way through marriage life.  Hub loved to move and we moved NINE times during our 37 years of marriage, but the moves were still in the same radius ...Never more than ten mile radius.  He loved to remodel and could see the big picture, I on the other hand, just wanted the house complete quickly.

We had a great Love Story....

We raised two beautiful daughters, and we both enjoyed attending all their activities in high school and college. We were both so proud watching them accomplish their dreams and receiving their doctorate degrees.  

Hub and I enjoyed going to all the local high school sporting events...I think this kept us young.  We enjoyed our trips to Pigeon Forge and to the beach.  We enjoyed just getting in the car and going for drives with no destination planned...just drive to wherever we wanted. Hub and I did have different interests, but there was so much we enjoyed doing together.

I miss him so much...there are no words to express how I miss him.  With the holidays quickly approaching it is difficult for me to see happy couples and listening to couples making plans and I feel cheated that hub was taken away.  Sometimes, I feel like screaming and telling all to hush because my love was taken but then I remember what hub said to me one day at Duke....we were waiting to see the oncologist and I told hub this wasn't fair for him to have cancer, and hub replied."You know what's not fair, Tammy, is for a little child to have cancer."  This shut me up and I never said that to him again!  I will get through the holidays and I will smile and I will cry some (well a lot), but I will  be okay.

Cancer stole a lot of joy from us....and I HATE CANCER!!  BUT CANCER CAN NEVER STEAL THE GREAT MEMORIES I HAVE OF MY LOVE, Charlie.

Christmas 2017.