Adventure Day One –Facing the Future
May 14, 2008 – How do you face the future when you are battling cancer and what do you say to those you love that you may be leaving behind? Over the weekend of October 11, 2002, Rickey and I put many things in our lives in order; one of those things was for Rickey to tape good-bye videos for the three children and one from Rickey to me – you see we did not know if Rickey was ever coming home again, or what the cancer or the treatment might do to his ability to tell those he loved most how he felt. It was Sunday, October 13, 2002 and we spent the morning like most mornings, sitting in the parlor enjoying a cup of cappuccino when we came up with the idea of good-bye videos. The videos were not directly intended to say good-bye, but rather to capture the moment and share life’s memories with loved ones. The plan was for Rickey to go over each child growing up, where they were in life and what he hoped for them. We took a large whiteboard from my home office and Rickey wrote down notes that he wanted to talk about to each child, and to me. We turned on the fireplace in the parlor and set up the video camera on a tripod. I wasn’t able to stay in the same room with him, it was hard enough dealing with what we had been told only a few days earlier – and now Rickey had to find the strength to tell the children and me how he felt, what he hoped our lives would be like, even if he might not be around to see us all grow old.
Although Rickey walked into our parlor that day planning to document the beginning and to tape subsequent videos every month during his treatment, by the end of our first thirty days all our focus was on Rickey surviving-capturing the memories moved from videos to emails as we started documenting the journey, Adventure Day One.
(The videos were taped on 8mm and none of the children ever received them. Upon conversion to DVD five years after the original recordings, we found the sound quality was poor. We are currently in the process of restoring them. If we are able to restore them to blog quality we will post them in the “airing soon” TV on the front page of the Adventure Day One blog.)
Until our next blog – remember life is an adventure, embrace the journey. You can make a difference one day at a time.
Share your adventure with us!
Mom & Dad: The website is coming along so beautifully! I am so happy for you guys! Thank you for being so strong and sharing our family’s story with the world*You both are my inspiration! I love you most!