Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, at least since becoming an adult. (Certainly as a kid, Christmas was the best!) And since surviving cancer, Thanksgiving is even more important for me. For one thing, anyone surviving something like that tends to give thanks a lot and feel a lot of gratitude. For another, it was a few days before Thanksgiving in 2002 that I had my very last chemo - talk about feeling grateful! The exact date was Monday, November 25, 2002. The way the calendars came out this year, the dates are on the same days of the weeks. So Thanksgiving that year was also on November 28. I felt too sick to eat a lot but at the same time, I was overjoyed to know that in another week or so I would start to feel pretty good, and that this time, I would not have to go back into the chemotherapy room for more poisoning. It was such a joyous feeling!
This year, there is thankfully no such drama, but the memories of dealing with cancer, getting more distant each year, are still there. It is good to be alive, although I am sobered by the remembrance of people I knew who are no longer here starting about 3 years ago. Today is the first Thanksgiving that my friend (and Crawlin' Crab teammate) Leslie will not have her husband Ed by her side. Ed is just the latest in an all too long list of recently departed friends and family members. So while I give thanks for all that I have, including life, I remember those less fortunate than I who did not survive. They are gone all too soon.
Well, enough of that! Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy some good food! Kiss a grandchild! Tell someone that you love them! Watch a football game! Have an extra piece of pumpkin pie! Say a prayer of thanks! Take a nice, long walk! And give thanks for what you have. Even if it doesn't seem like a lot, it is.
