C is for Courage

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.  - Nelson Mandela

I'm already overwhelmed at the outpouring of love and support from friends and family, near and far. People are calling me brave, but truly, the bravest person I know is my father, James B. Grady.  (Or as he likes to say, James "B is for Beautiful" Grady.)   He was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer last June, and almost 10 months later, continues to defy the odds.  Every two weeks he gets a chemo infusion which must be brutal, but you would never know from the way he teases the nurses and smiles at every patient in the treatment room.  He thinks the reason he got cancer is to help brighten the lives of people who are in dark places, and I am going to do my best to live up to his example.  He inspires me through his selflessness, his optimism, his sense of humor, and his strong belief that death is not the end, but the beginning of something more beautiful than we can ever imagine.

I take after my Dad in a lot of ways.  I have his keen wit, a tiny bit of his intelligence, his big thighs and his crooked teeth.  He instilled in me a love of literature and poetry, taught me how to drop the f-bomb and play gin rummy, and shared the strategies of football and hockey so I would really understand what I was watching  on TV.  We differ mightily on politics, but that makes our debates more spirited.  I have a lot of my Mom in me, too, but even she acknowledges that I am clearly my father's daughter.  Never have I been more proud of that comparison.

So I should probably finish up this entry so I can go call my sweet Dad and tell him how to navigate to this blog.  Did I mention he is IT challenged?  Did I mention that my sister, Elizabeth, helped me set up this blog because I am an IT moron, too?   Like father, like daughter.   In the areas that truly matter, I have some work to do to make sure that is true.