One of the things that we designed our full time traveling lifestyle to accommodate for was being where we need to be. Family and loved ones are extremely important to us. And we recognized that as our parents and grandparents age, there is likely to be more need for us to be there.
And such as occasion is currently upon us. My father was just diagnosed with what looks like early stage lung cancer. So we are now enroute back to Florida for his surgery this Wednesday. We will be there to support him and my mother through this over the coming weeks, and I will be taking over day to day operations of the software development business that I run with my folks.
We really had no firm plans for our summer – we were contemplating traveling through Canada perhaps. The news came at a time in which we had even more flexibility than usual. So yesterday after leaving the Gateway Burn event near St. Louis we started heading towards Florida.
At first, my dad was reluctant to accept our offer of routing to Florida. He was thinking in terms of a more typical situation in which one might need to spend extra money to travel and potentially taking time off work. Then I reminded him, that for us – our travel costs are our everyday living costs and we’d be spending gas and camping fees anyway. It isn’t an extra expense for us.
Routing to be where we need to be, even for the long haul, is exactly what we’ve designed our lives to adapt for.
My father’s prognosis is quite positive and is a best case scenario situation so far. Hopefully in a couple of months he’ll be back to full speed and embracing more digital nomadism in his life too.
Your best wishes, healing thoughts and positive thinking are most appreciated right now as our family comes together to get through this.
best wishes to your dad!
.-= nomadic matt´s last blog ..Learn to Teach English Anywhere =-.
I hope everything goes well and there’s a speedy recovery. We’ll be sending the good vibe all week long..
Sorry to read the bad news Cherie.
I hope that the surgery goes well and that he fully recovers.
From Canada,
_adolfo
.-= Adolfo Isassi´s last blog ..The Airstream index… =-.
You are so fortunate to be able to be there for your parents. I wish that would have been possible when our parents were ill. You will never regret this time with them. You are in my thoughts.
The flexability to chage directions on a moment’s notice is one of the best parts about this RV lifestyle. My positive thoughts on behalf of your Dad are on their way.
.-= Linda Sand´s last blog ..MNML List Part 2 =-.
Sending love and healing energy along with prayers for early recovery.
I am so glad and excited that you are able to do this. I wish I was in the position to do the same when my dad had a stroke.
Kudos to you guys. You are my heroes.
Rasheed
.-= Rasheed Hooda´s last blog ..You don’t have to be perfect to be good =-.
I’ve been thinking about you two so often since your last post, worried about what you wrote about the major family stuff.
I am so sorry to hear about the diagnosis. Cancer is such a sickening, terrifying experience. My husband was diagnosed with a very bad invasive cancer two years ago. It was also an early stage, but it still took a while before I really felt confident that he was actually going to be okay. (He is perfectly okay and considered ‘cured’ right now.)
It was important for me to hear those stories when he was first diagnosed, because Google was not my friend at the time.
I am keeping you in my thoughts. It is such a gift that you can be near home. Please remember to take good care of yourself, too.
My prayers are with your dad, your families and you both. May God continue to watch over you all.
Steve
Love you two. Sending prayers and healing thoughts to your family.
Hi Cherie–
Sorry to hear about your dad, but sounds very promising indeed if surgery is an option. My mom has been going through cancer the second time around since last fall — she had beat her original cancer in 2000. Her new prognosis is not as good– she now has both breast and lung cancer, but she’s enjoying each day to it’s fullest, and continues to find something good to laugh or smile about every day! It’s really amazing how many good treatment options there are for lung cancer these days– from improved “cyber knife” kinds of radiation therapy to better drugs that target the specific kinds of cancer cells. So, there are many options that should give your dad many more happy years…but do keep him smiling and laughing….I’m convinced that it’s the strongest medicine of all. Best wishes to your dad and family this week.