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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe final journey: A terminally ill cancer patient's nearly 2-year trek down the Mississippi River
Kelly Phillips was going to die. That much was certain.
The question was when.
As the terminally ill cancer patient lay in bed, contemplating the few short months his doctors said he had left, he knew that this business of dying would not take place in hospice care in New Jersey.
He would spend his final days on the brackish waves of the Mississippi River -- free.
Phillips said he called his brother who lives in Wisconsin and asked him if he could find him a houseboat on the Mississippi. He bought the boat from his hospice bed, packed up his belongings, his dog Sapphire and flew out to Wisconsin to spend his last days aboard his boat, the Shameless.
The journey entailed traveling down a river that extends over 2,000 miles and across 10 states with zero sailing experience and only $214 in his pocket with his dog at his side.
I didnt do anything to prepare, Phillips said. I learned as I went.
That was 20 months ago now and Phillips has made it to his final destination, Venice, Louisiana.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/final-journey-terminally-ill-cancer-patients-year-trek/story?id=60555249
DFW
(54,506 posts)Reminds me of my brother-in-law. He was diagnosed with a Glioblastoma (Teddy Kennedy, John McCain, Beau Biden, too many others) at age 48. They gave him 4 to 6 months.
He said, "well, crap, I might as well make the most of it." He went sailing on the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands, hill climbing and bicycle touring in the German Sauerland, etc., etc.--for the next two and a half years. Yes, the cancer got him in the end, but not quite "on schedule."
samnsara
(17,665 posts)malaise
(269,328 posts)focus on what they really want to do when they are told that they have a serious illness.
This is wonderful.