This date

I'll be honest, August 13 is probably the day I most dread on the calendar each year.  Today is the 20th "anniversary" of my friend Eric being diagnosed with leukemia.  That is not something a young college student expects to face, but Eric faced it head on...and won.  I'll never forget spending that week before I left for my sophomore year of college sitting in hospital waiting rooms, and I'll never forget how helpless I felt.  I can only hope that being there somehow gave Eric strength and extra fight...and at the very least helped him to pass some hours.

It was also on this date 17 years ago that I walked into my house (I had just graduated from college and was still living with my parents) and there, standing in the kitchen, were my parents and they were crying.  It was the third time I could ever remember seeing my dad cry in 22 years, and I knew it couldn't be good.  My mother explained that because my father wasn't getting any better after his diagnosis from pneumonia several weeks earlier, they were beginning to realize something was seriously wrong and were suspecting lung cancer.  While that's still not good now, back then it was pretty much a death sentence.  As it turns out, it wasn't cancer, but it was definitely the onset of Dad's 17 year battle to fight and stay with us.

Adding this to the emotions and stress of moving, and it's just proving to be a long day.  I'll be glad to go to bed this evening, and since tomorrow we get to officially purchase our new home, I'll be very excited to see tomorrow arrive as well!