Celebrating graduation times six

Me and Ben, 2003 

In a photo taken of me with Ben at his high school graduation in 2003, I have a scarf on my head and a smile on my face.

The scarf is because I was in between chemotherapy rounds, and the smile is because I got to that  graduation in the first place. When I was diagnosed with AML earlier that year, I was afraid I might not make it.

Through the ups and downs of my battle with leukemia, I was shadowed by uncertainty. The way things go, much of this uncertainty gets crystallized around major events such as graduations, the main question being, of course, will I live to see these special days?

Katie and me, 2014

It turns out that as of Katie's graduation from Brandeis on Sunday, I made it to three high school graduations and three college graduations.

Sunday was a wonderful day of celebrating Katie's success, and also, under a bright blue sky, of celebrating having gotten this far as a family.

One of the first things I did when I came down out of the clouds was to e-mail a photo from graduation day to my care team at Dana-Farber, thanking them for making it possible for me to see this day.

I also e-mailed Denise, my donor and life-saver, and thanked her too, because all the brilliant doctors in the world could not help us transplant recipients without the generous gift of life from our donors.