I’m a little late to the 2025 Year in Review game, but well, it is what it is.
First, an explanation about why this is the first post in more than a month. From December 6-13 Randy and I were on the Norwegian Encore celebrating our actual 50th wedding anniversary. A second cruise in 2025 sounded like just the ticket to cap off the year long celebration of our 50th year of marriage. I found a great deal and off we sailed, from Miami, to what is known as the Mayan Riviera. We visited Cozumel (nothing special), Roatan (which we liked a lot), and Belize (interesting, but again, not somewhere we’re itching to return to). The cruise was a relaxing, restful way to commemorate this milestone.
We got home on Saturday. On Monday a crew began ripping out all the floors in our house, a combination of tile, carpet and cheap vinyl plank. The tile dust was the final straw in overwhelming our normally very efficient immune systems. Right around Thanksgiving a friend and Randy had started remodeling our master bath shower. In the middle of the project, the friend got a bad cold. He was barely over it when we went on the cruise. Then came the tile dust. Those 3 immune compromising events in a row finally did us in. We both got colds a few days after they started the floors. It was the first time in almost 5 years that I’ve been sick. We’re still recovering from that dang lingering phlegmy cough. Then, too, the holidays (which we mostly ignored) were also sandwiched in there.
I have just been too busy and feeling too crappy to write. I listened to my body for a change and ignored this blog.
A few mornings ago, I woke up with the urge to document the momentous year that 2025 was. Momentous in (mostly) good ways but exhausting in every way. I thank God our health held up till the very end to be able to enjoy all the wonderful things that marked one of our busiest years ever.
2025 started with what I call “Visitor Season.” In Florida, those are the first 3 months of each year when friends and family from “up north” (where it’s cold and snowy) come spend their time enjoying our sun, sand, and warmth. I love that time of year, actually. It’s why Randy and I spend so many of our resources maintaining Grathen’s Last Resort. In January we convinced my mom to come down for a week with my sister, Patti. Likely this is the last time my mom will ever travel down to Florida. Lynn then arrived for 2 weeks without her husband, David. Finally, Randy’s sister, Kristine and her husband Gary were here for about 10 days. Each arrived either the day or the day after one left. We had nonstop visitors for 6 weeks.
While Kristine and Gary were here in mid-February, Kristine went with me to my regular mammogram appointment. Originally told I was clear, on the way home the radiologist called and asked us to return. She’d taken “another look” and saw more suspicious results on the film. She recommended biopsies. I dragged my feet, wanting to consult with my medical oncologist. He agreed that biopsies were a good idea. That began a series of medical testing and consultation that takes over your life when you get a third breast cancer diagnosis.
In the meantime, as soon as the guests were gone, Randy and a contractor friend began a project to tear out the guest bath jetted tub and install a stand up shower.
In the middle of all the commotion with the cancer and remodeling stuff, in mid-April, we got a call that there was an opening for my mother at the senior living community she’d decided she wanted to live in when she was ready to leave her apartment.
Mom vacillated for several weeks about whether or not she was ready to move to the senior living community. To my surprise, in the end she decided to move. That necessitated a month-long trip for me and Randy up to Wisconsin. I’d promised her I would manage the (slow and gentle) move and all she needed to worry about was making decisions about what she was taking with her. We enjoyed that trip. Moving anyone anywhere at our age is hard work but our being there helped alleviate all of mom’s fears that the move would be overwhelming for her.
The day we left Wisconsin I was concerned that mom would be upset and weepy because her “live-in support” was ending. Nope. We went to lunch with one of my high school friends, then went back to mom’s new place to say we were heading home to Florida. We caught her in the hall, coming back from lunch. She barely had time for us. She had a date to play cards in 10 minutes. Thanks, she said, see you next time. And she was off to her new adventures.
Honestly, looking back, I think that moment was the high point of the year. My mom was happy and engaged again with new friends who were still living. I wrote a while ago how she’d been lamenting that all her friends were dying. “Sorry,” I said, “That’s life as you age. Go find new ones who are still living.” Seeing her do just that made my heart go wild with gratitude. Nothing liking seeing your mom perk up again after a long season on a downhill slide.
A bonus of taking that trip in May was we got to do all of our visiting with friends and family in that part of the country. We didn’t have to swing up that way again during the Grand Adventure Road Trip planned for the fall.
We went home by way of spending a few days in Missouri. The Lake of the Ozarks is a beautiful place near Memorial Day. We enjoyed a few days with Lynn and Dave, saw several friends, ate too much and then had to drive back to real life in Florida. I was facing my third cancer diagnosis and there were decisions to be made and treatment to commence.
On June 4th I met with my surgical oncologist. She very bluntly told me my breasts are trying to kill me. She discussed the options I had. Randy and I decided to just be done with the whole business. I agreed to a double mastectomy with a flat closure (no reconstruction). I did ask though, that since it was our 50th anniversary year, and we’d planned that epic 8-week road trip with the Alaskan cruise in the middle of it, if the surgery could be done quickly and if I’d heal enough to hit the road in late August.
My surgeon and her team were rock stars. They scheduled the mastectomy for June 19, giving me about 9 weeks to heal before we scheduled to leave on our Epic 50th Grand Adventure Road Trip. The surgery itself was less of an event than I expected and there were far fewer complications than with the lumpectomy and breast reduction I had 2 years ago. When it came time (on August 22) for us to roll out of here, I was ready. Not 100% back to normal physically, but close enough to know I could enjoy the adventure. And mentally, after meeting with the medical oncologist who recommended no further treatment, I was ready to celebrate my new lease on life.
I guess I’ll have to wrap up this year in review next week. See you then for a recap of the second half our 2025, our 50th wedding anniversary year.
P.S. I’ve decided to only post once a week, on Tuesdays, in 2026. Because I have to renew several things associated with this blog this year (domain name, hosting contract, etc.) I am mulling over whether to continue with it at all, or perhaps moving it to a less costly platform like Substack. I’d appreciate your input.
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