During the summers of 1958 and 1959 my mother and I vacationed at White Horse Beach near Plymouth, MA for a week each summer. I have fond memories as a 10 and 11 year old of playing in the sand and surf and listening to the winds of a growing hurricane while my mom spread calamine lotion over my sunburned back.

            While I can’t scientifically link those two summer sunburns to my current story that began in May 2002, I have a strong suspicion that that was the beginning of this story. Never again did I spend extending time in the sun without a shirt on after those summers. The bleeding blisters scared my mom and, I guess if I could have seen them they would have done the same for me.

            Over the 12 months leading up to May of 2002 my wife Regina and I were distracted with my more immediate cancer treatments for base of tongue cancer. I felt this itchiness on my back and scratched it, but never looked at it. That, was a mistake….