I Don't Hate Cancer

This is my nephew JD, my dad's oldest grandson.  Given his name, Joseph, and much of his athletic ability (Although there is a SLIGHT chance that we inherited some of the same genes :)).  Tonight I will be listening to his Westside Pirates battle it out in their first game of the State Basketball tournament.  The rest of my sisters and their families will be watching it LIVE in Boise, ID.  In fact, they should be checking into the hotel right about now.  People LOVE it when they see my entire family checking into a hotel together with 20 excited cousins.  They always hope that they can get the rooms right below ours :)

Last year we did the same thing.  I even got to go.  And although JD really is a SUPERSTAR, we all knew that we were not going for JD.  Two weeks earlier, my dad had been diagnosed with bone cancer.  It wasn't a shock, we already knew that something was terribly wrong.  It had been caused by taking 30 years of medication to save his kidneys.   It was evident to all, that things were going downhill fast!  This is us right before the game last year.

 My flight plan was to fly into Boise on Thursday and fly out of Idaho Falls on Sunday to return home.  That never happened.  I drove home with Jared and my kids two and a half weeks later, the day after my dad's funeral. 
After the basketball tournament had ended, we drove from Boise to Ashton (my hometown).  The next morning, my dad announced his decision.  There would be no more doctors, no more medicine.  "Call the girls.  If they can let me go and pray that I can die, I will go quickly,"  he told my mom in the early hours of Sunday morning.  He died one week later.   
That Sunday morning, I went into his room and had a very personal, sacred conversation.  During that conversation I asked him, "Dad, have you done everything you were sent to do?"  With his jaw set and his eyes fixed heavenward, he said, "It is all done, I don't know if I did it all right, but it is all done."  It was evident to all close to the situation,  Our time together had run out. 
Although, we were surrounded by death, the following 2 weeks would be the most spiritual of my life.  Through the events that transpired, it became very apparent that there was a grand design and plans on both sides of the veil that needed to happen.
And so, for the past year, many people have asked me if I hate cancer.  The answer is no.  Cancer had very little to do with this entire situation.  It was simply a means to accomplish a grader plan.  I remember reading a talk by Elder Maxwell.  He said that he didn't know why the Lord chose to manage the great "Switchboard in the Sky" the way that He did, but He knew that the purposes were divine.  I know they are too. 
There will be a reunion, but there must be much accomplished between now and then.  So in the meantime, Go Westside!  Go Pirates!  Go JD!  Play hard, but above all, be good.  Live up to your name.  Make the family proud.