Hummm. I never thought of it as being inspirational to others. I wrote it more as a tribute to my wife who I feel saved my life. When my late was was undergoing chemo the doctors told me that the prognoses was bad for her. They did not share that with her nor did I, because we did not want to want to depress or her. When the doctors told me that I had a form of cancer that could be controlled, I did not believe them. They hid it from my late wife, so assumed they were hiding the bad news from me. I became depressed.

After my wife died and before I was told I had cancer, I was desperately trying to fill the void in my life that losing my first wife left. There were many women, some ridiculously young. I had become a "player." No one filled the empty feeling that I had. I drove back to my home town of Pittsburgh PA. and attended a High School reunion. That is were I re-met the little red head that I had ignored through HS. I fell for her like a ton of bricks. Things happened fast, as they tend to do for older people.

Later when I discovered I had cancer and thought I was dying, I phoned her and explained that I was not playing with her affection, my intentions were honorable but this cancer changes everything. The only thing that is important to me now is pain medications. She replied with the most classy thing I ever had a woman say to me: "Don't worry about me. You came along when I needed a man like you. I enjoyed you every bit as much as you enjoyed me. You just worry about getting better." We said our good byes and I hung up the phone. I stared at the phone wondering if I had made a mistake. I had, but she forgave me and came to my rescue.

I have made many mistakes in my life, she remains the smartest thing I ever did.

Facing ones own eminent demise, helps clear the thinking process immensely.

Over ten years ago I was undergoing chemotherapy. A little red headed girl I had known since grade school, knew that I was widowed, alone, and fighting cancer. She had just retired from teaching art in High School. She was also recently widowed, and drove hundreds of miles to be my care giver and help me survive. When I felt exhausted, she would show me a picture postcard of a mature couple kissing on the streets of Paris, saying "You will beat this cancer, recover, and we will travel to Paris." I did recover and I'm now in very good health. We took that trip to Paris and kissed at the same spot as the couple in the postcard. We like so many people, fell in love with Paris. We married and I bought a house deep in the woods in Pennsylvania. We have dedicated a little breakfast nook to our memory of Paris. We often sit across from each other, enjoy each other and our memories of that time. Our little Paris: