rekkidblogga

Breathe again

Waking up at the ungodly hour of 4 o'clock this morning to watch the special coverage of space shuttle Discovery's planned re-entry - an event we used to take for granted until the Columbia disaster in 2003 - I instead found myself stunned to learn that longtime ABC News anchor Peter Jennings had died. Jennings announced his diagnosis on "World News Tonight" back in April with a noticeably scratchy voice, nothing like the glib delivery we'd grown used to hearing, and it was a rather startlingly frank goodbye from such a public figure in such a public forum.

He was only 67 and had said we'd see him on the air from time to time again, but that never happened. Lung cancer, I learned this morning while watching ABC's tribute coverage, claims 90% of its victims in five years - 75% in two years. 10% of people diagnosed with the wretched disease never smoked a cancerstick in their lives. (That would be me, for instance - the girl who once took all of two puffs on a ciggie and got so sick she wondered why people CHOOSE to do this.)

My father has smoked all his life, since he was at least 17. He's 76 now. He has a form of emphysema called COPD. It's not lung cancer and he so far hasn't been diagnosed with any form of lung cancer, which is good news - not to mention amazing, honestly. I hope he's lucky and never is.

But a co-worker who's 65, two years younger than Jennings and also a lifetime smoker, was just told that he has lung cancer. He's not just my colleague, he's my friend - my buddy. I've missed him at work and now, knowing the harsh facts and statistics, I've lost a lot of the hope I had before 4 a.m. today. But that won't stop me from calling him tonight or going to visit him soon. The Yankees need both of us to root them on this year and I won't let them - or him, a fan to do The Boss proud - down.

posted by rekkidbraka @ 1:17 PM