Now that I have told you about what the three different times of my dad having cancer looked like, I want to give more detail within the 15 years and even what I think and feel now that my dad is gone (which won't be just this post about what I think and feel). When I think back to when my dad first got cancer, I remember I was 9 years old. At 9 years old, you don't really know or understand what your dad having cancer means, all I knew was that he was sick. At 9 years old, all you are really thinking about is playing baseball with your dad, or in my case my favorite sport was basketball. And he is not supposed to be sick, he's supposed to be Superman. (I will reference Superman a lot since that was my dad's favorite superhero, which I think I wrote in a previous post). Still to this day, I remember coming home one night after he had gone through his procedure and was in the recovery process, him having tubes coming out of his body, which was from him having to take medication/drugs to help his body, which still to this day amazes me how much of that over a 15 year period he had to take.Just as he would say in his last few years of living (they basically kill you to help keep you living). I also think about why he went through all that and now I think, I don't know if I could have gone through what he went through. It is amazing how much strength God gave my dad and how much my dad was willing to go through just to be there for us, his family. It really makes me more grateful and thankful that he was my dad, and that he loved us that much, that he was willing to sacrifice so much. Probably the most vivid memory I have of my dad and how the first time he had cancer affected his health, is the cough he had. I probably could write a whole post just on that. But going back to it, I remember him always having a hard time with that cough (I can still hear it to this day). Once I got to middle school, I was able to better understand what he went through with his health.
Thanks for reading and God Bless,
Patrick Mastrianni
