My dearest friend and college roommate told me tonight that his wife had a miscarriage. They've had no end of difficulties throughout their marriage conceiving a child and have never carried one to term. To make their own good news, they adopted a child a few years back, a wonderful little boy who has thrived under their care.
Then for his second act he told me he had colon cancer.
As he continued with "the doctor says it's unremarkable, they caught it early, I'm going in on Tuesday for the surgery" I spun quickly through denial and anger, skipped right over bargaining and was well on my way towards enjoying a nice full plate of depression when he said:
"But on the good side. . ."
That's my friend. Other men would have broken under the constant sorrow he's had to endure with his wife so many tragic times. And I know I'd be absolutely shattered with debilitating fear if I had cancer.
But he was telling me about how he and his wife had made their own good news in the face of this.
I'm humbled and amazed that in the face of all of his troubles, he was concerned that I'd be worried and was trying to make me feel better.
I don't know what to say. Except to ask all of you to cast a good thought out to a good man next Tuesday and wish that his surgery goes well, that he recovers, and he can go on living a long, long time. I'll do what I can, and will pass on your wishes to him and his family.
I'm sure I'll look at this post at some time in the future and find some blithely meaningful way of relating it to product management. When that happens, hit me.
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