Remember to Remember You
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Self-Care Isn’t Selfish
By Joshua J. Mark

The Universe will never require you to set yourself on fire to provide heat for others.
~Clyde Lee Dennis

I hung up the phone and returned to scrubbing the kitchen floor. My brother Jason had just invited us over for dinner. Again, I had to tell him we couldn’t make it; I had too much to do. Every morning, I made my to-do list. Every evening, each line was crossed off as done. The list was essential because there was always so much to do. But no matter what I did, a new list grew in the morning.

It was June 2016, and my wife Betsy had been diagnosed with liver cancer a month earlier. This was not our first journey with cancer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, and it returned in 2008. Both times, I was her primary caregiver, and we’d beaten the disease. In the summer of 2016, I felt I was reprising a role I knew well. But this time, for some reason, I could not remember my lines or what to do once I stepped on stage each morning. I could’ve used some strong direction and a little stage managing. (Keep reading)