My wife almost died...That's why we cruise every year!

[craykclan]

Although, I haven't been on a cruise before (first one coming up in June). I am a breast cancer survivor. It was a wake up call to both me and DH. We kept saying that some day we would take this vacation and never did. So we won't be waiting anymore. I have been "cured" for almost 2 years now. This cruise is a celebration of my life and my love of life.

[sunsurf]

I may tell my story...one of these days. But for now, I'd like to thank you all for sharing yours. Some very heartbreaking and others so heartwarming. Just amazing. You are all an inspiration and I wish each and every one of you and your families much love, health and happiness.

 

Congratulations to those that have overcome illness & my condolences to those that have lost someone so near and dear to them.

 

God Bless.

[saltmom1]

My DH never made it on a cruise. He died 3 years ago after only 4 months of cancer and after 37 years of marriage. I also see patients where I work no older than me who will never cruise and are in bad shape. I am facing a "major" birthday this year and made the decision to take a cruise to Europe by myself. I wish my husband were here to go too but I plan to have a good time anyway. I have a picture of him in front of Stonehenge before we were married. I plan to have my picture taken there too, in front of the very same stone. Too sentimental I guess.:o Anyway, go for it everyone !

 

I am so sorry for your loss.

Your husband is there. You just can't see him.

I have lost my entire biological family in 9 years. My only child is graduating from H.S. this year in the top 10 of her class. I know my family will have a front row seat to see their grandaughter and niece graduate.

[manmtnmike]

Anyone else?

[manmtnmike]

Anyone else?

 

Just thought I'd bring this subject back up ....as I look forward to our next cruise , I'm wondering if others will "do what it takes" to cruise every year.

 

So why do you cruise every year?

 

Mike

[TennisLover]

I'm glad to see this thread revived. We have a cruise booked in April with our two kids (DD is a HS junior -- and we're looking at colleges already). Family cruises will be a thing of the past soon -- at least they will be the way we know it. I'm sure we will be doing huge family cruises in the future with the kids' families, but since they are only 13 and 16 now, those are a long way off!

 

With the economy the way it is, I keep wondering if this April cruise is a good idea. I keep going back and forth. Reading some of these posts makes me think that I definitely should do "whatever it takes." Could be our last family cruise for a while....

[LoisGriffin1]

We haven't been on our first cruise yet I am already thinking about our second.

 

We are only young but love travelling. I want to see the world. When I was 21 a heart condition was discovered and it shocked me big time. I had only been married a couple of months. Its controlled fine now but stopped me putting stuff off. Me and dh have travelled quite a bit in our 4 years of marriage and intend to travel a lot more. I want to see the world now because who knows what will happen in the future.

 

We are starting to see that we are different to others our age. Most are settling down and starting families where we are still immature and selfish (not my words) by travelling.

[dulcimergirl]

Growing up in a family of 5 we took many vacations. Trips to the mountains, trips to the lake.

Then we grew up and the three siblings moved away. Now we live quite a ways apart, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia and from mostly Arizona to now Florida. For 40 years most have been apart, visiting ocassionally but, mostly keeping in touch by phone.

This year, the year of my parents 60th we are all going on a cruise. Alas my sister and I have to leave our hubbys at home in order to afford to go, but have a cabin together. So all of us together (with the addition of my other sisters DH) will be enjoying this cruise of a lifetime.

My parents are 80 and we don't know how much time is left to us.. we intend enjoying every minute.

Everyone has cruised before, and my parents many times, but its a first for us all together...

 

24 days and counting... can't wait.

 

Loved this thread, and prayers to all who have lost loved ones, and cudo's to all who moved on and learned how precious, and fragile our lives are.

[Cruizer2008]

Yep, do it before you settle down because after you start your family, time is a luxury.

 

We haven't been on our first cruise yet I am already thinking about our second.

 

We are only young but love travelling. I want to see the world. When I was 21 a heart condition was discovered and it shocked me big time. I had only been married a couple of months. Its controlled fine now but stopped me putting stuff off. Me and dh have travelled quite a bit in our 4 years of marriage and intend to travel a lot more. I want to see the world now because who knows what will happen in the future.

 

We are starting to see that we are different to others our age. Most are settling down and starting families where we are still immature and selfish (not my words) by travelling.

[ajkcruising]

My DH was diagnosed with 4th stage NHL back in 2006,,,,he made it,,,so we took our first 21 days vacation in the Summer 2007, then deciced to cruise for New Years 2007. Last May Cancer came back with a vengance,,,,had a transplant and by the hands of God he beat it AGAIN!!!!,,,so here we go on another 3 weeks in the Caribbean at X-mas and cruising again March break 2009.

 

Life is shorter when u look back at the struggle,,,,we are grateful for every single second of the day that God is giving us,,,,today and right now is the only time u have which is guarantee, you can use,,,to praise the Lord for his generosity. Share and enjoy ur partner's and children,,,,as u never know when ur time is up.

 

Now in our 40's we try to squeezeeeeee every minute for joy, love, passion, gratitute and care!!!!:D

 

 

 

AJ

[sbwhite2]

I am so glad you brought this thread back to life, so to speak. I had a childhood of weekend trips with parents and extended family... long weekends camping in the west virginia mountains with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins... great memories. And an occasional vacation such as a two week trip through the west. Great memories. DH and I started traveling (cruising) on our 25th anniversary. A couple of years late we were able to take my parents for their 49th (we were afraid that my dads health would not hold up until their 50th). Luckily, my dad was still able to travel for their 51st so we took them again. And that cruise I will never forget. Just spending time with him. He died before the 52nd anniversary. Now, 2 years later, my mom is ready to cruise again, so for an early Christmas present, we're taking her on a 10 day with us.

 

Time is one thing that can not be replaced and so are loved ones who have left us. Several co-workers have raised eyebrows at DH and I taking 3-4 vacations a year. We do not have children, both of us have minor health issues and I want to be in my rocking chair remembering instead of wishing.

[cruiserbryce]

we cruise to just getaway. Both our jobs tend to be a bit stressful and the time spent away relaxing is very much needed

[Serendipity50]

I feel exactly the same way...we are taking our son [33] and grandaughter [10] on there first cruise ...there is no way he could afford to do this himself being a one parent family....[ flight from Uk..week in Orlando..theme parks..shark dive..dolphin swim...2 nights Miami...cruise to Mexico and Key West] while we have our health and can afford to do it we will...knowing what fabulous memories we will all have.

As a friend of mine always says 'there are no pockets in shrouds' and who knows whats round the corner...be it a cruise or a tent in a field...share it with your loved ones whilst you can...they will always remember it not the new kitchen or new car.

Jean

[BoPippy]

My DH never made it on a cruise. He died 3 years ago after only 4 months of cancer and after 37 years of marriage. I also see patients where I work no older than me who will never cruise and are in bad shape. I am facing a "major" birthday this year and made the decision to take a cruise to Europe by myself. I wish my husband were here to go too but I plan to have a good time anyway. I have a picture of him in front of Stonehenge before we were married. I plan to have my picture taken there too, in front of the very same stone. Too sentimental I guess.:o Anyway, go for it everyone !

I know how you feel.I was married for 29 years.I found out 18 years ago i had an eye disease where someday i will go blind.I wanted to see the world and have been doing my best to do that.We travelled and had many great memories.My DW got a rare cancer 4 years ago and only lasted 12 weeks and died. I met another woman a year after and we have been married almost 3 years and we watch old travel videos together and i again have the most wonderful life i could ever ask for.My wife's urn and photo is in our livingroom smiling over the both of us.:)

[GTO-Girl]

This past January the group of friends we travel with lost one of our "cruising buddies" VERY unexpectantly. He went in for a heart by-pass surgery and died before they could start the operation.......we were all devastated!!!

 

Then this past August one of our lady "crusing buddies" had her cancer come back and she was gone within a month.....again we were all just broken hearted.

 

Things like this really make you stop and think about your life and how you want to spend it. As long as we can afford it we will NEVER stop cruising because it always brings us such wonderful memories of happier times. And as we travel we will always remember to pause and give a toast to our dear friends Jimmy and Rita who we miss so very much......

[dunbawn]

Growing up neither my DH or myself went farther than the beach for a day vacation. At least I had the road trip to relocate to California to remember. In our early married days we were just able to afford food so vacations were out of the question. It wasn't until one Saturday as he was cleaning up in the garage that we acually got to go anywhere. He won an all expense trip to England from the radio station he was listening to. We've done two trips to Europe and 10 cruises. Countless road trips throughout the US. We have a road trip to Florida in two weeks and a cruise to Alaska next Sept. already planned. Our kids had a yearly trip to Disneyland even if it took the rent to pay for it. Road trips and camping on the way to Gramma's house. My MIL would sit in her kitchen saying she would love to go to Hawaii and never went anywhere. My FIL was to afraid of not having enough for his retirement. My MIL passed in 87 and my Husband won the trip in 88. My FIL was gone in 90. After all was said and done we used the funds that he left to take our girls on a cruise. We said life was just to short and we would do the things we wanted to while we could. My own parents would take trips back to Ireland every other year to visit family.

 

eileen

[winesfine]

This truly is a heart warming thread and brought back so many memories for me.

 

My dear father passed away 2 months to the day of my wedding. Thankfully, my wedding kept my mom occupied to help soothe the sad and lonely days. My DH (now married 30 years) and I had booked a trip to Jamaica for our honeymoon, but was cancelled last minute. The TA knew we had looked at a cruise (wow, back in '78) but could not afford it. The owner of the agency said "find one that is close to the date and give it to them for the same price". We went on a 16 day Med cruise and I will never ever forget it. My dad was in the navy when he died and I like to think that he had a hand in the honeymoon.

 

Through the years and 3 children we went on many trips and camping most weekends, almost always with my mom and her new husband. We always said we wanted to cruise again and finally bit the bullet for our 25th wedding anniversary and booked the Panama Canal and Disneyworld. Our children didn't go with us, but my sister and my mom and several friends all booked with us. Sadly 1 week before we were to depart my mom had a very bad flu that doctors could not seem to control. We went on the cruise without my mom (the hardest thing I ever did). My mom died 2 months later of unknown causes. My mom was my best friend and I have lots of travel memories with her, but I sure wish she could have finally done her cruise.

 

My DH and I cruise once a year with my sister and BIL and I know mom is with us on each trip. Our February 09 cruise was (I emphasize "was") supposed to be our last for a while so we could concentrate on getting the cabin built for our retirement. After reading through this thread I've decided that the cabin is "liveable" the way it is and will give us a project to do while we are retired (if we don't kill each other in the process - LOL) so, screw it, I'm still cruising once a year :D

 

Thanks for helping me put things back into perspective ... and now I need to figure out a way to save enough $$s to take the kids with us. They've been on 1 with us, but there were very bad seas and no fun for them, but they are willing to try again one day so hopefully I can make "one day" very soon.

[katyjeka]

Life is so hard today. Everyone is busy and days are so hectic. I get tired of cell phones ringing, emails to answer, errands to run, schoolwork to do, with so little time left for the most important thing in life, family. When we leave for our cruise, or any vacation, our phones are off, we don't touch the computer and our girls know they have 100% of our attention. My dh and I get to reconnect and share precious hours together. The memories we've made are worth more than any amount of money. A less "mushy" reason is we live in a small town and we are trying to show our girls how wonderful the world is away from home. They have witnessed first hand how great people can be and how beautiful, colorful and diverse the world is. We want them to be excited about life and not be afraid to leave the "sheltered" town we live in and experience new things. Janice

[Kathie44]

I can't tell you how glad I am that an alert to this thread came up on my E-mail. I tried to find it this summer but couldn't remember the exact title.

My DH passed away on Aug. 13th after 4 weeks on life support. He had a terrible lung disease called pulmonary fibrosis. It had been building up for over a year without any real symptoms except shortness of breath and fatigue, which could have been anything. He'd gained weight in the last few years and just thought he was out of shape. He started to have worse symptoms while we were at our daughter's near Cleveland July 12-14th for our grand-daughter's baptism. I got him to the dr on the 15th and he gave Vern a steam breathing treatment in the office,started him on an antibiotic and ordered a chest X-ray. The X-ray showed what seemed to be a mild pneumonia. The dr told him to stay on the meds and inhaler, but to get to the ER if he got worse. Well, Vern didn't tell me until it was almost too late and we barely made it to the ER before he stopped breathing and had to be put on life support. After 3 days the IV antibiotics weren't working, a culture of lung fluid was done and showed no bacteria. Then they did a lung tissue biopsy which showed the real disease, for which there is no treatment and no cure. Some patients show temporary improvement on steroids and he was off the vent for 5 days but crashed again and I had authorized the nurses to re-intubate him. I just couldn't relate to losing him. This couldn't be happening! I just wanted to be able for him to talk to me. But the feeding tube never came out and he wasn't totally awake.

We decided to back off on treatments--no more dialysis, no extra BP meds if he crashed again. That was Aug. 8--his brother's bday and also our grandson's. His sister's bday was 7/22.

On Mon. 8/11 the lung dr told us Vern's bone marrow had shut down and his kidneys would momentarily. So we made the decision to take him off life support after the 48 hr waiting period. Three of us had to sign the consent form--Vern's brother Gene, our son Bill and I. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, but there was no hope and we didn't want him to suffer any more. Our son, Brian, whose bday was the next day, volunteered to stay in the room the first night. Vern had been transferred from ICU to Palliative Care, the in-house hospice. I really didn't want Vern to die on Brian's bday, but didn't want him to go to the 5 PM deadline on Wed. He passed away peacefully in his sleep at about 1:30 on Wed morning. Bill had stayed with him that second night. They wouldn't let me stay because they knew how exhausted I was from spending so many hours at the hosp every day for 4 weeks.

I'm doing OK for the most part, but just reading these last two pages on this thread has caused me to use a lot of tissues. My prayers are with everyone who has lost loved ones.

Just this morning at choir practice before Mass, I found out that a fellow choir member, whose kids and mine were classmates, is going to be taken off life support after a brain hemorrage. The breath just sucked out of me and I started to cry. I know what it's like and she is about my age. Thank God for our families and friends--they've been so wonderful, then and now.

When people commented about how much we were cruising, I used to say that as long as we were ambulatory and Vern's glaucoma was under control we were going to do as much as we could because you never know what the future holds. Little did I know how prophetic I was being!!

We had 8 cruises is 6 years and have two more booked for '09. I thought I would have to cancel, but Joni, my TA and step-sis, talked me into waiting in case I could find someone else to go with. The good news is Vern's sister is going with me on the Galaxy to the S. Carib. Jan 19th. We are flying into San Juan on the 18th and returning home on the 30th.

She has never cruised or even traveled much. Since her divorce 14 yrs ago she has devoted herself to her kids and grands. We are both really excited and looking forward to the cruise. I think it will help us get through the holidays.

After feeling sick with dread of the holidays, I decided to put my trust in the Lord to help me and now I am already feeling calmer. I have been going to a wonderful series of bereavement group meetings and have made a new friend--we've been helping each other outside of class, too. She lost both her parents and her husband in the span of 2 1/2 yrs.

The other cruise we booked last March is Summit to the Med.--Barcelona to Venice --leaving June 3rd. One of my choir friends says she'll go if I can't find anyone in the family to go. My hope is that my SIL will get hooked on cruising in Jan and go with me in June. The price has already come down $350. The Jan. price is down $100.

The bottom line is don't put off the fun stuff. Besides cruising we bought our dream weekend home in May '96 and have spent most weekends and some longer times there for over 12 yrs. Fortunately I will be able to keep it and our pontoon boat. I am not going to move there (1 hr N. of Dayton) like Vern and I had planned. Don't want to be that far away from family. 2 of my boys are local 2 live an hour away, in or near Cincy. My daughter is near Cleveland. My sisters and all of Vern's sibs are local.

((((HUGS)))) to everyone on this thread. My prayers are with you in your sorrow and health issues. Please keep me in yours.

Edited November 16, 2008 by Kathie44

[cusyl]

Condolences on the loss of your husband.

My DH is in the last stages of cancer which has now spread to his brain.

I am contacting Hospice tomorrow to help me, it's been very hard....Life goes on.

[gail811]

My prayers are with you Kathie, and to the poster above....I am so sorry for your loss. You both sound like strong women with strong families....may you both find peace and courage in the days ahead.

[suezyq50]

My DH found out he had colon cancer, stage 2. Things have changed here. We are approaching life differently, including taking time for ourselves that include more vacations and time with kids and grandkids.

[ChristynBJ]

I cruise for myself. Since I was in High School as an exchange student I have always loved seeing new places and meeting new people. I travelled to Europe every 2 years while I was a college student and young 20's, mostly travelling by myself so I could have the freedom to change my plans on a whim. When I met my husband, we changed the plans a little. He prefers the same place every year (so for 3 of our vacations a year we go to repeat destinations JAN= MT for skiing, APR= OR Coast with family, JULY= Lake Chelan in central WA) but the fourth week.....ahhhhh the week. That week is all mine. I get to plan whatever I want! :) It is somewhere new every day. We take all of the kids (yes, out of school here too) and go see a new place. I want them to appreicte the world around us, and to realize how fortunate they are to live where we do. Even during a "down economy" we still lead a blessed life, and we have responsibilities to others. Of course, they have a wonderful time, and each year they appreciate it more! Next vacation? Whole family cruise to the Caribbean (after that is a girls only to Alaska!!) What a great way to make memories!

[kitty9]

My mom fell in love with cruising about 7 years ago. She totally and completely loved being on a cruise ship. We had three cruises planned for next year, but mom passed away suddenly two weeks ago. Our hearts are broken and we're having trouble moving on.

 

We canceled two of our booked cruises and to be honest, I'm not sure we will want to cruise again, at least not for a long time. It will be very painful with all the memories and not having mom along. My sister and I loved being with her on all the cruises, two or three a year, but I don't know how we'll handle cruising in the future.

 

It took almost two years, but we finally convinced mom to take a cruise in Europe, so off we went this past May. It was so wonderful to see her face light up as we went to places she only read about or saw on TV. She was so happy that we had talked her into going and we wanted to take another one next summer. But it's not to be.

 

So to everyone here, don't put off anything in life. If you want to take a special cruise, don't wait until "someday". Do it. You won't regret it and you'll have everlasting memories.

[cusyl]

My condolences on the loss of your Mom. I don't think she would want you to stop cruising. When you are ready, go and enjoy yourself and make more memories.