Ten Years

If back then I had been told the path that was laid for me on a ten-year plan, I wouldn't have believed it.
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We had your bronchoscopy yesterday and we knew things didn't look good, but we hoped for the best. Today we got the call. "The biopsy results are ready, can you come over?" Dr. Ang said.
"Sure, at what time?" You asked.
"Anytime. Can you come now?"

At 3:37 p.m. I emailed a few friends with these words:

Subject: Please cross your fingers
The doctor who performed the bronchoscopy yesterday just called, he wants to see him today... it can't be good... otherwise, he would have already said it... he has the verbal results from the lab...
Thank you for asking all these days...

And it was as bad as one can imagine--lung cancer. Days later we found out it was also stage IV.
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Doctors gave you months to live, but they didn't know they were in front of a fighter, and of his love. We had four and a half years since then. Five and a half together. The best five years of my life. Now it's been more than five years without you. It doesn't matter--you are with me forever. You are in all of us. Recently, our dear Fernando honored your name in his Ph.D. thesis defense. You are in the hearts of everyone who got to know you.

I continue writing the book of our love, for Nen. I am revising it and I expect it to be out very soon.

Today ten years ago it was a black day. I won't make today's day a sad day; it is a day for reflection. Today is a reminder that no matter what cards we are dealt, life can be lived to the fullest. And only so, we'll have no regrets at the end of it.

Your love, always.