Return to Radnor

Last year during her most difficult times at the hospital, Dori spoke often of hiking again at Radnor Lake, her favorite spot (one of mine, too, for running). Today, I received one of this year's best e-mails from Dori, who said she completed four miles at Radnor (three hiking hills and one running along the lake).

Saturday, our friends Kathy and Kevin joined us for dinner. All of us watched Dori polish off an 8 oz. filet, a crabcake, salad, bread and dessert. What a sight it was. Last year, Dori received her nutrition from a tube for much of October and shunned meals often. Words cannot describe the joy of watching your spouse enjoy good food.

I'm just so happy and proud of Dori. She's taking on many new tasks. She's communicating with longtime friends and friends at Gilda's Club about confronting and dealing with issues that cancer patients must face. She's running our house again, better than ever, and enjoying each day like never before. We are feeding off her increasing energy.

Dori is also realistic. Tonight, she talked to all of us at dinner about the cloud of cancer. She explained it well to the kids. Last year, we were dealing with a thunderstorm. That storm has abated, but clouds from the storm haven't gone away completely. We still think about cancer, and we have our ways of dealing with it or avoiding it.

Dori and I, for the most part, do a good job dealing with the clouds. Kids, on the other hand, don't have the same experience or coping skills. Our children have done well. No doubt, we're so proud of them. But I don't believe kids stand the same chance to sort out their feelings as normal, healthy adults do. That process will be ongoing for all of us ... sorting out the after-effects. We need to keep our gutters unclogged.

This morning, while on business in East Tennessee. I woke up early for an easy three-miler. I felt good after Saturday's run, not too sore. The temperature was a wonderful 62 degrees. I chose a backroad that was fairly narrow and busy, so I had to pull off often to avoid cars in the dark. I enjoyed the run nonetheless. Tomorrow, I plan to run six.