A Unique Way To Spend New Year's Eve
T.S. Eliot wrote, "What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from." Each new year is in many ways about endings and beginnings. Children understand this concept perhaps better than adults. Toddlers begin exploring on all fours, and then one day they amaze their proud moms and dads when they stand erect and take their first steps. Soon, they begin running. With each experience they complete, they naturally begin the next.
As adults, we often want to hang on to what we know. We've become comfortable with the way things are. But each ending gives us an opportunity to separate from our past and open a larger future.
A friend of mine, whose name is Thom, opened a larger future for himself because he refused to believe in the end. His story begins in Pennsylvania in October 1989. That's when Thom was diagnosed with NHL. He subsequently underwent 6 different types of treatments, between which the length of his remission periods decreased.
Around Thanksgiving in 1998, he was not responding to the current treatment. His doctor suspended it, saying there was nothing more that could be done. Thom refused to believe in that end. He went home, did some research, found a clinical trial at the University of Nebraska and was soon on a plane to Lincoln.
On New Year's Eve 1998, Thom was in the hospital taking Bexxar, certainly a unique way to spend New Year's Eve. But what Thom did that night gave him a new beginning and 8 more years that he wouldn't have had otherwise.
Thom's had no further treatment, and today, he's healthy and enjoying life to the fullest.
A growing community of people like Thom and Mort and me are here today, looking forward to this new year, because we were the beneficiaries of great science which gave us new beginnings. People like us are living proof that this treatment works well for so many people for long periods of time, and I hope that we shine as bright beacons of hope to all of you.
To say that I wish you a happy new year is simply too trite. What I wish for each of you is courage and comfort as you face each new day, and most especially, I hope with all my heart, that many more of you will benefit from the same treatment that gave Mort and me our new beginning.
Betsy