Join me on a journey from being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012 at the age of 65, 30 years after my father died (the second time) when prostate cancer finally took him, to assessing the future, and determining how I made it through events as a teenager that would normally weaken the heart and crush the spirit. Unlike my father, I am cancer free, physically fit and in excellent health.

From the intense uncertainty of a just hearing the word “cancer”, to attempting to understand how to deal with the disease, the reader joins me in confronting the past and embracing life outside our bodies from multiple points of view. Together, we examine the love and support necessary to survive that form our strongest bonds, the emotional confrontations we can’t avoid or make sense of, and the deep spiritual connections that reside within us, but often remain unacknowledged. 

Every Day is a Gift is also a prescription for medical professionals to help them understand how treatment and healing are more than a series of appointments and statistics, as doctors alter the life of each patient and family through radiation and chemotherapy, hospital visits and therapy. This memoir is an expression of the heart through writing and illuminates how a journal sets each person free from years of upset and misunderstanding, ultimately providing comfort, control, and closure.

​

At times intensely dramatic and satirically funny, matter of fact, and passionate, there is still time to pause for reflection. From first page to last, there is no separation between writer and reader as we arrive at the conclusion that governed my father’s days: Every day is a gift.