I can’t believe it‘s 2020! Where did 2019 go too? Nevertheless I’m excited to see what God has in store this New Year. I know there will be exciting times and there will be difficult times.  Trials and challenging times are part of life and God uses them to mold us and make us into what he wants us to be. So having said that let me share with you four things I’m excited about for this new year.

1). My Health: As most of you know I was diagnosed with stage one lymphoma about nearly two years ago and just recently the doctor said I was pre-diabetic (whatever that means). Seems like I’m always dealing with some type of health issue but Thank God he is always good all the time. I don’t have to have any treatments for my lymphoma and for my pre-diabetes I go to my nutritionist so she can tell me how bad I’ve been doing(just kidding). I’ve also gotten a home gym and treadmill to help with my health. This is going to be fun! Right?

2). My new granddaughter:  This year around May 12 I’m going to be a grandpa!! We are so excited!! Yes!! It’s a girl!! Her name will be Lillian Grace Hopper. Linda and I are already buying stuff . Everywhere we go we see something that we think is so cute for Lillian that we just end of buying it. Let’s face it folks we have an addiction and it’s called Lillian! We have even spent hours wandering what do we want Lillian to call us. I mean yes it’s crazy but we are just having fun with all this.  So hurry up May 12th!!!!

3). My Son’s acting career: Some of you may or maynot know that my son Zack is an actor living in Atlanta, Ga. He is following his life long dream of becoming an actor. He recently signed with an agent and hopes this will get his career going. He has been doing background work on various tv shows like the Resident,Walking dead and other movies and shows. This year I’m exciting and believe he will get speaking parts on several shows. So get ready folks we are getting a celebrity in the family.

4). My Health Business: Though I’m still working a full-time job I’m like my son in that I have always had a dream of owning my own business. I have tried various opportunities but it seemed like life had always got in the way of things. Now I’m tired of playing around. I’ve always been involved with Health companies because of the health issues I’ve been facing. This year i believe God has allowed me to be part of a company that’s on the cutting edge of some great awesome supplements. You will hear me say more about it on social media and hopefully in person.

Are there more exciting things? you better believe it! But right now I’m excited about these four.

As most of you may know, my first wife and my first angel, Martha,  died of stage iv brain cancer. To be honest, I never thought about getting married, especially no time soon. Yes, maybe someone to talk to or even a companion but never marriage. Matter of fact, Martha said she knew I would get married again and hoped I would. I never really liked the idea of talking about that subject while my spouse was still living, even though I knew she was trying to encourage me and to say I needed to move on after she was gone.

It was very hard being alone again because when you have been with someone for over 34 years it gets very lonely all of a sudden. I real quickly found myself in this big two story house with no one to share it with. Yes, my children were there; but, they  had to deal with the loss of there mother also. I think they either kept busy so they wouldn’t have to think about it or they wanted to be with there friends to talk about it. I don’t know, maybe both, and because of that they were not home that much. I’m not saying they didn’t care about their Dad grieving; but, they had to grieve in their own way.  My daughter would constantly ask me , “Dad are you doing ok?” I would respond yes I’m doing ok. My son on the other hand would say, “Mom is having a party in heaven!”

I finally went back to work a week after the funeral. Some may say that’s too soon but I say it was the right time. I needed to go to work because it got my mind off things. I work in a hospital here locally. I take medical supplies up on the various units that I work. The nurses all knew my situation. Matter of fact, many of the nurses donated some of there time so I could have off to be with my wife. Many also told how they were praying for me. Wow! what more could you ask for from a place where you work.

I knew a lot of the nurses in the hospital  especially on the floors where I work. I am a friendly type of guy and would always speak and be cordial to everyone. Then along came Linda. To be honest, I didn’t know Linda nor had I ever met her. I think she was off most of the days I came on the unit or was in the back helping babies. The secretary of the unit had paged me one day to bring up some blue bins to put medical supplies in because they needed them over in the resuscitation room and there would be a nurse to meet me over there and her name was Linda Crowder.

I met Linda for the first time and we barely talked. We were cordial to one another but that was about it. I handed her the blue bins and she said thank you or maybe there could have been some small talk but I guess it was too small to remember. Soon Linda would come to find out that I was the guy that everyone was talking about that lost his wife. Not long afterwards we began talking a little more after the first meeting when I saw her.

I soon found out she had lost her spouse six years ago to heart disease and had a difficult time after he died. I got bold and began to ask her questions about the struggles she had and soon found out I was going through some of the same things: weight loss, body ailments, and sleepless nights to name a few. I soon realized God had brought her into my life.  We had a bond that was forming and we could easily  talk.

I knew this was a God thing because God kept letting us cross paths in various places outside of the hospital, even places where I did not normally go. She was so kind hearted and knowing what we had been through she offered to give my family her tickets  to the NC theatre to see Beauty and the Beast performance — to put some enjoyment back in our life. She had four tickets and we only needed three, so I insisted she go with us.

Well, as you may know, God began to put things in order and we got engaged in January and married in May.  Some may say that is way to soon and others  may say it’s ok.   I really don’t care; because,  I just know God gave me another Angel.

My first wife was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. She had battled with this type of cancer for nearly four years before the Lord called her home. During this time, as her husband, I was her caregiver day and night. It was very exhausting because of the many sleepless nights and was very emotional seeing her health decline before my very eyes.
Now, just nearly two years later, I find myself dealing with cancer again. This time I am the one that was diagnosed with cancer. It began by going to the doctor for what I thought was a pulled muscle strain. I had moved some furniture to our storage unit a couple weekends prior, knowing I shouldn’t have done it by myself. The doctor gave me a prescription for a pulled muscle strain. A few weeks went by and I was still having some abdominal pain. I knew something wasn’t exactly right. I went back to the doctor and we decided to do a CT Scan to hopefully rule out the worst case scenario.
After a week went by, my second wife (God gave me another angel) and I were shopping in Target. I get a phone call from the doctor, of all places to be! I didn’t really want to answer but I did. He said he had  the results back and it looked like Lymphoma. He said it showed enlarged Lymph nodes but really didn’t look that bad. He began to tell me of people who have been living with lymphoma for years —  that was nice but I really didn’t care at the time! He gave me the name of a specialist in Cary, NC. that would be really good. After hearing all this, I felt that I was in a daze and shocked or thought I was in a dream and thinking I can’t believe this is really happening to me.
My wife and I made the appointment to see the specialist in Cary, NC. My wife drove because I was just too nervous to do anything. After we got there and checked in, we of course had to wait to see the doctor. It seemed like an eternity. Finally the doctor came in an introduced himself. He seemed to be a nice guy and to be honest I was very impressed with him. We wanted to know what I was dealing with; but, he kept asking us questions like, “What do you know about Lymphoma?” or “Has anyone talked to you about lymphoma?” I just wanted to know what I had and what are you going to do about it! So please shut up and tell me! was what I was thinking.
The bottom line is this. (I like to keep things short and simple) I have stage one CLL(Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia). Currently, I only have to see the doctor every three months for check ups. No treatments at this time (Praise God!).
Please continue to Pray that God’s healing hand will be upon me!