Ready or Not

During President Hinckley’s funeral, his daughter Virginia Pearce said that when President Hinckley learned he had cancer, at age 95, he did what any of us would do: he mourned the loss of good health. The take-away for me is that no one is ever ready for bad health news. I sometimes feel that chronic illness came too soon for me, somewhat ravishing my middle age years. But if President Hinckley mourned the loss of good health as a 95-year-old widower, I suppose that no one ever feels ready. Three of my siblings’ fathers-in-law have passed away, relatively young. Were they ready? Two more have been diagnosed with cancer. I’m sure they weren’t ready for that. I’m done feeling “cheated.” I’m lucky I don’t have a terminal disease, and it is what it is. You are never going to be ready. I had a great 40 years without MS, and now I am to have a great 40 with it.