“Aside from the cancer, this has been the best five years of my life,” he’d said to his brother-in-law before passing. His words were shared at his funeral, and they stuck with me.
Five years ago, my nephew Michael was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. It forced an early retirement as a pediatrician.
Date Night in our household unfolds on Fridays, although one of us tries to extend it into one big Date Day. “Honey, do you want to walk down to the Old Mill and get a chai latte this morning?” “Hey, does a hike sound good this afternoon?” “Where are we having dinner this evening?” See how that works.
Well, Hubby beat me to it this time: “You wanna go to the air show?”
Success used to look like getting as many items checked off my to-do list as possible in a day. The more I accomplished, the more successful I was, right? And maybe even the more worthy I was, or so I thought.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Probably the most astonishing sight I’ve seen lately is video of my husband hanging out with sharks.
We’re eight days on an archipelago of 330 islands that make up the country of Fiji.
It was midnight and I was hitchhiking home to California on Interstate-5. A trucker stopped to pick me up. A trucker with a daughter my age. On the drive south, he said he’d take me all the way to the California bay area, but he encouraged me to return to school.
Photo by Sneaky Head on Unsplash
A friend recently threw out a challenge to take a 24-hour rest from all screens—phones, computers, TVs. And it was enlightening to discover my most challenging aspect of screen dependency.
Photo by Thai Nguyen on Unsplash
You may be tempted to think this blog is about how much I enjoy tea. And reading. And being home. I mean, just because I’ve included some of my favorite quotes about these things—that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. By the way, have you heard this one by C.S. Lewis?
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.
Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash
Dan and I have been grandparents-in-training for several years. I doubt that he’s made any colossal mistakes along the way like I have.
Three grandkids missing from this photo
I’ve never learned to like the bitter taste of coffee. I love the smell, but the taste, um, not so much. I mean, every once in a while I’ll have a little coffee with my cream and sugar.
Until.
Until our latest adventure in Puerto Rico. My son and daughter-in-law took us to breakfast one morning. DIL ordered a mocha, which turned out to be a cup dipped in Nutella and then plunged into Oreo cookie crumbs. The lovely pink mug was then filled with the chocolatey-coffee beverage, and a creamy heart was painted on top.
We just spent a week in paradise—a small island in the tropics where my son and daughter-in-law live, also known as Puerto Rico.
So much tropical greenery, sandy beaches that rim the island, beautiful old structures, and delicious food. And of course the best of it was spending time with son and DIL.
Copyright © 2025 Marlys Johnson
