I remember Joe's freshman year at Penn. He was so ready to be away from the hospital, the chemo, the scans and the confinement of our home. He told us "just drop my stuff off in my room and we will say goodbye." It wasn't thirty minutes later than we had a call from him wanting to know our whereabouts. Then it was can we have lunch, and could you help run the cable in my room and then I would like a Penn hat. What was, as planned in his mind a short goodbye, turned into a long and lingering afternoon. The last image I had of Joe was sitting on a bench in front of his dorm. His head was bald, he was thin from eight months of chemo, but he was brave and proud that he achieved his goal of attending an Ivy League school.
No, we won't be getting Joe ready for college, not this year or any year forward. But we had the good fortune to deliver him to Penn his freshman year and run the cable line, have lunch with him and buy the Penn hat. Those memories are with me every fall.
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