April 22, 2024

It’s been four years since my cancer treatments, and last week I returned to Seattle for my now annual CT scan. The great news is that I’m still cancer free! If my scan next year is also clean, I’ll ‘graduate’ from the Fred Hutch Cancer Center.

After my appointments I drove up to Bellingham for a few days to visit long-time friends Mark, Dianne (one of Annette’s sisters) and Roxanne. They become part of my extended family when I first met Annette so long ago. It was great to connect and spend time with them!

I know and appreciate how lucky I am to be alive, yet driving and returning home alone was emotionally difficult as it’s a hard reminder that while I may survive cancer, Annette did not. She and I traveled back and forth to Seattle so many times for treatments over a nearly three-year period, even living there for a couple months during her surgery and my daily radiation sessions. Fighting cancer was a team effort for us. Sadly, surviving cancer is not…

But the trip to Bellingham helped temper the sadness, and I'll only be home for a short while as I'm leaving for a month to participate in a couple more Wilderness Volunteer projects in Utah and Colorado with a lot of hiking along the way. Spending time with my friends and outdoors reminds me that life is good and each day a beautiful gift, as the photos below demonstrate!