Soldier Up (9 page)

Kai was in his first week of 5
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Grade and Morgan was in her first week of 3
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Grade, Kai was excited about starting school, Morgan not so much.  John was on his two week deployment for the year, they were overseas some place in the world and of course he couldn’t tell her and he wouldn’t be able to contact her during this time period.

              If there were any family emergencies they were to contact the civilian POC (point of contact) who in this case was now retired Sergeant Major Dognillo or now just Anzio Dognillo.  He did his thirty years and was forced to retire reaching the maximum number of years an enlisted person was allowed to serve.  Prior to his retirement John and the Sergeant Major created a civilian position with the 19
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essentially just for him, maybe a little unethical, but the Sergeant Major was the heart and soul of the unit. 

              There was a new Sergeant Major who had actually served with Sergeant Major Dognillo or he was his team Sergeant when he was in the 10
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at Bad Tölz Germany, Sergeant Major Aleho.  He knew he had some pretty big shoes to fill especially since a few of the guys were old SFOF-D guys who joined up when they found out Major (now Lieutenant Colonel) Clayton and Sergeant Major Dognillo were running the show.  He had tried out for Delta twice but never got through the selection course; he always got hurt and was forced out due to injuries.

              Back at home Mel was dealing with getting the kids off to school and all of their after school activities, she had help from Lucida who was still with them after all of these years, Mel didn’t know what she would do without her.  To top of all off Mel had her yearly checkup, she wished she could get John to do the same thing, but he was a man after all, they did everything they could to stay away from the doctor’s office.  She had seen John come home from that weekend training covered in his own blood from some sort of action, he never thought twice about it.  Sometimes though it was pretty bad, once he had dislocated his shoulder, he and Anzio did their best to reset it and they thought they actually had.  But John woke up in terrible pain that night and still refused to go to the ER, she threatened him with divorce if he didn’t go right now, they both knew she didn’t mean it, John thought though that if she was that serious he better go.

              Mel was very health conscience and takes great care of herself; works out daily, eats very healthy and regular doctor visits, last year she passed her physical with flying colors so this was all routine to her.  She had taken the day off to get her physical done and run errands, not to mention picking up the kids who had half day and playing taxi mom.

              She finished her physical in almost two hours, completed all of her errands, had an early lunch with her girlfriends and was off to pick up the kids.  It was a beautiful day out and she was going to enjoy her time, she just wished John was home, just a few more days and the family would be whole again.

              Mel was getting really bored with her work; it didn’t challenge her in the way it used to.  They had money now more than they could ever use, she had been thinking about early retirement to spend more time with the kids or finding something else that she wanted to do.  She hadn’t gathered the courage yet to talk to John about it but he did notice her taking more and more time off, he asked her once “don’t they get mad about it?” She responded that not that she was aware of.  In fact the company was fed up with her missing so much work, they were aware that she was losing interest in what she was doing and had offered her other positions within the organization, she had been working there for almost fifteen years.

              A week after her physical she was called back in to her doctor’s office stating there were a few more tests they wanted to run, nothing to worry about it was routine.  Her thought was if it was routine why didn’t they do it last time?  She set a time and date up to return, she knew work was not going to be happy about it, but she didn’t really care.

              She arrived for her appointment a bit early hoping that she would be able to get in and out with little hassle as possible.  She was lucky and once she arrived and checked in she was taken to the doctor’s office.  Her doctor explained that her test came back and showed she was anemic, he was sure it was nothing but they needed to be sure.  The additional tests took an hour or so and she was at work pretty much by her normal arrival time so there were no issues.

              The doctor explained the anemia could be as something as simple as not enough iron in her diet or something simple like that and she shouldn’t worry.  A few days later she was left a voice mail to call the doctor back with regards to her recent tests.  When she called back she was told she needed to make another appointment, the sooner the better they said, it sounded a bit more urgent this time.  She was able to get into the doctor’s office after work that day when she arrived she was hurried into his office where she waited patiently for him to arrive.

              The doctor came into his office while looking at her test results; he sat down while still reading them and then set the file down on the desk.

              “Hi Mel, how was your day?” the doctor attempting to make small talk.

              “Well it was going fine until I got the call to come back in, what’s going on?”

              “Mel, Mrs. Clayton your anemia is a somewhat more involved than we thought.” The doctor went on to explain what all of the tests found and what they meant or potentially meant.  The test results are pointing to Cancer he told her, what type and how far he didn’t really know but they were going to refer her to an Oncologist for a second opinion and some additional testing.  Once they have more information they could then discuss it more, but they needed to get her in to see the Oncologist as soon as possible, meaning days and the tests run this week.

              Needless-to-say she was now scared, “I have Cancer?”

              “Yes we think so, but we need to run more tests to make sure.”

              “So it’s possible that I might not?”

              “It’s possible but right now you’re tests point to that you do.  But only an Oncologist can tell us for sure.  I’m being honest and open with you I don’t want any surprises here.” The doctor was trying to be as empathetic as possible. “The nurse is setting up your appointment now and she will let you know when you leave, do you have any other questions or concerns?”

              “Well yeah! I have a ton of them but I guess I’ll have to wait to find out won’t I?” Mel said.

              “Yes, I’m sorry you will, once the tests are run by the Oncologists we should know more in a couple of days after.”

              Mel just nodded her head and thanked the doctor for everything; she stood and walked out to the front desk to talk to the nurse.  Her appointment was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  How she wished John was home now, but the good news was he would be home tomorrow night, everything would be alright then.

              She couldn’t shake the thoughts the rest of the evening and the following day, she had to go to her boss at work and explain the situation, which helped them get a better understanding of why she was missing work, her boss told her not to worry about and take the time she needed to get it resolved, it’s not like she was there all that often anyway.

              She met with the Oncologist that had reviewed her test and this time around her doctor was a woman, Sarah O’Connor.   Doctor O’Connor told her the same thing he family doctor told her and they would know more after the tests, she warned though depending on how the test come back she may have to take a biopsy.  Mel spent the next few hours having more blood drawn and all sorts of x-rays, she was poked and prodded and asked a new serious of personal questions about her current health, it was all very professional.

              Mel left the Oncologists office feeling very much like a piece of meat, from there she headed home to pick up the kids who were with Lucida and headed to the airport to pick up John, thank God he was almost home, she needed him more now than ever before.

              It was a wonderful homecoming she loved meeting him at the airport especially when he was in uniform, Kai and Morgan were always star struck like their dad was some sort of rock star his uniform glistened from so many shiny things Morgan once said, Kai one upped her and said it had a lot of bling.  There were a lot of hugs and kisses to go around and one very very long hug from Mel who had tears rolling down her cheeks, at that time John knew something was up.  She was always happy to see him when he came home from these things, but she had never cried before.

              They picked up his bags and they all went out to dinner in San Francisco it was great family time, everything was right in Mel’s world with John home.  John on the other hand was concerned; Mel was always looking at him and couldn’t tear herself away from holding his hand. He loved the attention but it was a little outside the norm.  He didn’t say anything to her about his suspicions nor ask any questions he felt if there was really anything she would talk about it when she was ready.

              They got home late and it was a school night, the kids got changed into their pajamas, washed up and brushed their teeth, then dad put them to bed, Mel let him have his time with them before talking to him.  After he put the kids to bed he went looking for his beautiful bride he just wanted a hug and kiss before jumping into the shower.  He found her in the kitchen looking out the window that was over the sink.  He walked up and hugged her from behind and leaned over and gave her a kiss on the check, he noticed she had tears rolling down her cheeks again.

              “What’s wrong?” he was concerned. “I’m sorry for whatever I did and I won’t do it again.” John was holding up his hands.

              This got a brief smile from her, “We need to talk.”

              “Are we getting divorced because I really don’t want to talk about that!”

              “Why would you think that?” she asked.

              “Well in all of the movies when the woman says we need to talk it’s never good.”

              He had a point she thought, this wasn’t going to be good.  She recounted her story over the past several days with the doctors and that he might have Cancer, by the end she was crying and John was holding her as tight as he could.

              “We’ll get through this, let’s make sure we get all of the information first.” John said.

              “I know but I’m so scared.”

              “I get that, I know what it’s like to be scared.”

              Mel had never considered John being scared of anything but she thought about it for a moment he had been to war several times that she knew of so of course he knew what it was like, that to an extent was comforting to her.  John rocked her back and forth and held her close telling her it was all going to be alright.

They found that she had an aggressive form of Cancer and it was Stage four, she immediately entered radiation therapy quickly followed by chemotherapy.  The doctor’s prognosis wasn’t good, both her doctors told her six months at the most which would put it around Christmas time, which was a horrifying thought to her, if she had to pass she would never want her children to associate her death with Christmas.

              During this time all of Mel’s family and friends came to her aide, they were able to set aside their differences that had developed during the passing of their parents.  Her work gave her and indefinite leave of absence and assured her that her job would be there when she got back.  The biggest support the entire family got was from the 19
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Special Forces Group, via them the entire Special Forces Community came to their aide.  Locally the 19
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SF Group families got together to help the family with meals, house cleaning, getting the kids back and forth to school and practices.  Of course they had Lucida their nanny but she was more involved in helping Mel get through her day when John couldn’t be there.  Lucida had been with them since the Kai had been born, she was family.  She was married and had been married to the same man for over twenty years.  She had two sons both grown and in the Navy stationed in San Diego.

              Within months Mel had lost her hair from the Chemo, it had at first scared the kids who were being told that mom had Cancer, but Mel did something that was unexpected. She had looked at a lot of wigs some with real human hair, synthetic hair and animal hair, she wasn’t happy with any of them.  Then one day she decided no more wigs and she stepped out bald and beautiful and just owned it.  She wasn’t going to hide the fact that she had Cancer she was going to show everyone that she was just as beautiful with or without hair.  John loved it and he encouraged her through it, he loved her even more for it and did everything possible to support her.

              She had good days where she had a ton of energy then on other days she felt like she couldn’t get out of bed.  In November they received some good news that the biopsy’s showed fewer Cancer cells, her energy picked up and every day she seemed to be getting better and stronger.  Come Thanksgiving she seemed like her old self and they had a huge Thanksgiving feast with almost fifty people over.  Of course it was catered no one even if sick wanted to cook for fifty people, Lucida volunteered to be there and help but they wouldn’t hear of it, she had a couple of days off and she, her husband and sons (if they were in town) were invited as guests.  She assured Mel that they would be there and they were, she wouldn’t have missed it for anything the families were close.

              It was a great time seeing all of the family together and close friends, Anzio Dognillo had a new love in his life, since his divorce about five years ago he had been hitting and quitting anything and everything with a pulse.  Mel turned a blind eye to Anzio’s love life she loved the man and was a great friend to John; she knew that he was John’s sounding board for everything he was going through.

              After Thanksgiving was the Christmas Holidays and they were looking forward to it, a week before Christmas John was promoted to Full Colonel and now running the show for the entire 19
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SF.  She was so proud of him; he had also become fully vested as a partner in the company he had worked for almost seventeen years now.  Mel felt stronger and stronger every day, her body was still somewhat weak as it have been ravaged by Cancer and she was still going through therapy, it was an alternative therapy that she was trying now and it really seemed to be working. She was able to get out and do Christmas shopping as long as Lucida was with her as well as attend the Holiday play that Morgan was in at school. 

              She demanded this year all out Christmas decorations throughout the house, in the yard and on the house.  John was more than happy to comply especially after the year she had, she also demanded they go to Church on Christmas Eve something she had never done before, the kids hadn’t been to Church since the had been baptized which the pastor when he saw them was more than happy to remind them.  It’s not like they never saw him, he was their next door neighbor after all.

              Mel was up early Christmas morning making sure everything was perfect, she had breakfast made (coffee for John), all of the lights, a fire in the fire place and Christmas music flowing through the house.  John was up soon after she was videoing everything she wanted to make sure she captured everything, the kids were only young once. 

              The kids were up and hour later very excited at all of the presents under the tree, Kai was becoming wise that there was no Santa Clause but Morgan was still enchanted by the entire Santa ritual.  Regardless of how Kai felt about Santa there were presents to be opened and Morgan was beside herself.  John had a special present for Mel something she had been hinting at for some time, she wanted a charm bracelet with all of the special events of their marriage.  He got her one that was 24 carat gold, the charms have the kid’s birthstones and charm with diamonds for the date they were married. 

              The opening of the presents took all of thirty minutes but of course it had taken days to wrap them all, but wasn’t that the way it was always.  Then the cleanup and breakfast, John sent Mel to lie down for a while, she needed the rest they were having guests later on in the day.  He cleaned up everything and put together all of the kid’s toys while continuing to check on Mel who was sound asleep.  He started on the turkey and ham that they would have for dinner that evening, John didn’t cook much when he was home.  However, what he did for the Army required him to be able to hunt and cook his own food, it was part of the survival training that he had to go through and was supposed to be able to teach, well not him as a Colonel but the men under his command.

              Guests arrived late in the afternoon with more presents for the kids who were more than happy to indulge them.  The guests were Mel’s family, Lucida and her family, Anzio and his new girlfriend (yes a different one then he had at thanksgiving), several enlisted families from his command, some of Mel’s girlfriends and their families it was a lot of people sharing a wonderful time of year.

              After Christmas was New Years the 19th SF was hosting a huge New Year’s Eve party the Dress Blues required with all medals and awards.  They had hired a local band and the entire event was catered there would be a couple of hundred service members there at least that’s how many had RSVP’d.  It was going to be the event of the year and Mel was looking forward to it.  She loved to show off her husband when he was in uniform.