Cancer's Gift

A beautiful house, three cars, a boat and land,
a strapping forty-something, I was a fortunate man.
Lots of friends and a wonderful wife,
successful in business and lucky in life.

Weeks of a certain uneasy feeling,
I wait to be looked at, counting tiles on the ceiling.
Me? I felt fine, Doc - I'm an optimist not a cynic.
Heck, I've hardly seen the inside of a clinic.

Listening, but not quite getting his gist.
It floored me like an uppercut fist.
Then he gave me the plain English answer,
"What I'm saying is you have cancer..."

We went home reeling, numb with emotion,
looks like my lifestyle's taking a serious demotion.
Loved ones near and far shared the devastation,
and resulted in many anguished conversations.

The brutal treatments were like the end of my rope,
steadily losing my strength, my hair, my hope.
Upbeat doctors and nurses with caring hand,
surviving this, would I ever work or laugh again?

While others went shopping and dancing through the mall,
I dealt with chemo, radiation, surgery - trying not to fall.
While others laughed at TV's late night comedy,
I was praying to just stop vomiting.

Former close friends stopped coming my way,
fearful they'd catch me on my dying day.
Except Big Butch, a tough longshoreman guy,
who's friendship and feelings would never hide.

So through the long months I battled back,
with a "tenacious attitude", my wife calls it a knack.
For me, she would lovingly comfort, cook and bathe,
Caregivers have the heart of Job, her all she gave.

So I survive for now and what lessons did I gain?
Well, regret for bad habits, if they caused my health's bane.
Now I look just ahead, as through this life I sift,
With greater faith, I revel in only today - that is cancer's gift.