![]() My second husband and I had moved to Hawaii and constructed an extraordinary hexagonal glass house on the ocean, and I cherished our memories in it, but I needed new challenges. And did I mention I had Hodgkin's lymphoma in my 20s?įrom these challenges you could learn one of two lessons: You could become fearful, or you could shift your perception and become grateful. My second husband died of a heart attack at 54 - and he was incredibly fit, ate well and practiced yoga. My first husband died of a heart attack at 38. Words To Live By: Living life to the fullest means not living for yourself but looking outward - serving others and bringing out their beauty. "I am grateful every day for what I have, and grateful that I have the power to create a new life for myself," says Cosette Bonjour. Instead, I decided to get back into firefighting condition, which involved seven months of physical therapy and training, at least two hours a day, four days a week. I think everyone expected me to retire from firefighting at that point, particularly since, right after the prostate surgery, I faced surgery for a separated shoulder (from fighting a structure fire) and a total hip replacement. My doctor told me that if it hadn't been caught early, I would have been looking at a terminal case 10 years later. And as I approached 50, I had to think about my own: I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I've seen birth - I helped deliver a baby - and I've seen death. I wrote about my experience in 2004 with the Mosul bombing in Iraq (80 percent of the proceeds from the book go to support our soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder). I've worked in Florida, North Carolina and, earlier, with our extraordinary military in Iraq. Words to Live by: It's not the number of things we acquire, but how many lives we touch along the way.įor 28 years I've had just about the best job any man could have - firefighting. ![]() "There's not one day that goes by that I don't hug my wife and give her a kiss and tell her I love her," says Richard Bucci. And, really, this idea is one of the main components of faith. But I believe it's good not to know too much, because if you know a lot about something, you may be afraid to try it. We had to teach ourselves how to operate a television camera. We took our savings - she was a teacher, and I was a loan officer - and started a network. Or more specifically (and literally), my sister's dream: She called me in the middle of the night and said, "I dreamt that we should start a faith-based television network for the urban community." And so we did! Then I was a single mom, which is where adulthood really started.Īnd then I waited until I was almost 50 to pursue my dream. I waited until 39 to get married, and 40 to have a daughter. I lived in Dallas, Houston and New York in my 20s and 30s, and while all my friends were getting married and having kids, I still wanted to be a kid. Words to Live by: There's only one path to now. "Whatever I do at this stage of my life, I ask myself (and my friends) this question: Am I having fun?" says Kim Dillard.
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