I was hoping that 2018 would have a better start than 2017, but such will not be the case. My father passed away in October, ten months after suffering a stroke. His death meant the end of me having Durable Power of Attorney and made me Trustee.
To see my father and carry out my responsibilities I have been to Phoenix twelve times in the past twelve months, with some of those visits extending to two weeks. Which wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t quit working. It’s technically retirement, but I’m having a hard time thinking of it that way, as I haven’t been able to do anything normally considered to be a retirement activity.
I am anticipating returning to Phoenix in a couple of months, but something unrelated has come up that could interfere with the trip. I have been diagnosed with a melanoma, adding injury to the insult of being bald since I was 28 years old. The skin cancer has apparently been a long time in the making, although I’m sure that being exposed to the hot Arizona sun so much this year hasn’t helped, so perhaps it isn’t entirely unrelated.
Today was my initial consultation since the biopsy came back positive. Being told by a Harvard-trained specialist to expect “extensive removal” and “significant scarring” isn’t very encouraging, but at least there was a picture of Annie Little to look at in the examination room.
