Your dad sounds ace. I really hope the prognosis is a positive one.

All the best
Hannah xxx

..I'm reminded why it is that this is the only blog I follow. There's nowhere else quite like it. All the best to you and your Dad Steve.

for you and your dad and, as Hannah said, thanks for sharing.

can still teach us a lot. My Dad was stoic and he worked hard like yours, it's quite a simple plan for success really isn't it? Good luck this week Steve thoughts are with you and yours.

My dad, though a few years younger than yours, had the same bowel cancer diagnosis late last year… it hit me and my mum & my sister like a punch in the face & that was nothing compared to what it did to him. There are few things worse in life than seeing your old man cry because he's scared.

Constantly driving back north (He's in Filey, I'm in Brighton) to drive him to & from hospital appointments (I'll take a taxi, he said. Er, no you won't...) gave me plenty of time to reflect on our lives together and those reflections gave me the strength to get through those dark months.

I hope your lovely reflections above give you that strength too.

My dad brought me up as a Rugby League fan (it's still the first topic of every conversation we have) & I found myself dragging boxes of old programmes out of the attic and reading through them & savouring the memories they brought back. For Christmas I got us both tickets to this years Challenge Cup Final at Wembley, in the posh seats too, right next to where they present the trophy. It's in August. I didn't need to say it out loud, I wanted to give us both something to aim for…

Anyway, a few weeks ago, after a final operation just before Christmas, my dad got the all clear. Seems they caught it early. Difficult to write about that feeling & the changes that has brought to our lives without leaning on cliches… but that's fine by me. We're closer as a family, grateful to all the fabulous NHS staff who helped him, value our time together more etc, etc, etc & we're both really looking forward to that trip to Wembley in August.

I can only hope that everything goes as well for you & your dad over the coming weeks & months. It's a tough thing to go through & I know not everybody gets the end result we did but here's really hoping you do… and here's to the Dads… they're irreplaceable aren't they…

Take care.

All positive thoughts going your way

have a strong relationship - hope the news is good and wish you all the best

Sheev

and thanks for sharing Steve

Your dad sounds like a lovely man. I hope the prognosis is a good one.
Best wishes.

have you highlighted your hair?

I'll never recognise you at the next mingle if you do.

In just a few short paragraphs you've encapsulated the good life led by your dad. The love and respect he has taught you is his greatest achievement.

I lost my Dad last year. He was 83. Your Dad just sounds like my Dad, except mine's hobbies were fishing(to get away from us lot) and winemaking(trying to make a decent bottle for as cheap as possible).

Steve Earle's "Regular Guy" isn't about Dads but it always reminds me of mine.

I admire the way you express my feelings. My dad was told a few days ago that he has cancer as well.

You could be describing my Dad who is three years older than yours. I think that many of us at this point in life, when we know that our parents are not going to be around much longer we really think long and hard about what they mean to us and what they've done for us. I live 150 miles away from my dad but I try to visit whenever I can. "Too busy" rings a bit hollow for me these days. I had to cry off this week and I feel guilty, as he's on his own and despite visits from my siblings, time passes slowly for him sometimes.

A lovely post and I wish you all the best for the future.

Both my Gran and my brother-in-law got that, and both were cured. Gran lived on for several years, and died of something unrelated. BiL is as fit as ever (which is reassuring as he is my age). Fingers are crossed.

My father died of bowel cancer at the age of 65 back in 1987. He was diagnosed in 1981 and it finally got him 6 years later.

Steve - my father was a great bloke, worked in a factory and was very stoic. Not the most intelligent man but was very friendly and popular. I hope things work out well for you both. Spend lots of quality time together.

My only regret was that my dad never met my son who is nearly 15 and is a right character - they would have got on so well.

Best wishes to you and yours.

Steve: not much else to add, but best wishes from me, as well.

best wishes to you and your dad.

My old man is 71 and he drives me batshit crazy. We have fundamentally differing worldviews in many ways: I'm scientific-rational in a way that he would find reductive and joyless. He thinks pop music is a waste of time. He's religious, eccentric, a huge overwhelming presence in any room he's in, and sometimes I think he doesn't have a gram of logic in his head. He'll butt in across conversations in the most infuriating way: it's fifty percent deafness and fifty percent not-listening-anywayness. Sometimes when you're talking to him, it's clear he's cuing up his next comment in his head without listening to what you're actually saying. We bicker, or rather I snipe. He sends me round the fucking twist.

I absolutely love him to bits. He's incredibly kind, selfless in a way that I'm not sure I'm capable of except to my own family. Under his bluff retired headmaster shtick, he's hugely bright and very emotionally perceptive. He's still adored by people he taught, and he retired from teaching in 1995. If I'm out with him, there's a fair chance a middle-aged bloke will stop him in the street, call him "Sir" and shake his hand warmly. It makes me glow with pride every time. He's one of the finest recital baritones never to go completely professional: I've met world-class singers who have told me that they'd have rated him as genuine competition if he'd ever jacked in the teaching and done it full time. He's a natural craftsman, an amazing grandpa, and daft as the day is long.

I love and admire him more than it's possible to express, and I dread the day that health problems catch up to him.

Thanks for posting this thread, Steve - I wish you and your old man all the very best. Here's to the dads.

some more time with your dad you can treasure. It's always been a regret of mine that my father died when I was far too young and immature to appreciate him fully. He was eccentric as hell, used to drink more than his fair share at parent/teacher evenings, embarrased me hugely with his very particular humour many times but he had a strong sense of what was right for me and my sister, the value of education and doing the right thing. He left this earth far too early and my mother never got over his death though she stuck around for a good few years afterwards. I shall never forget what he gave and taught me and always recall going back to Ireland a few years after he died, being met by a cousin off the train who took me to meet the railway signalman and asked him who I was, "that's Stephen's boy" - it brought a smile to his face. I nearly broke down.
Anyway, I can really sympathise with what you're going through - a horrible time - but you'll deal with it, I'm sure and hope you have those precious moments.

all the best to both of you Steve, hope it goes well.

We got the prognosis this week and it seems it is localised and has not spread anywhere else. They will operate on the 14th April and fingers crossed the operation will be a good success.
Whatever happens I must say the swift attention and help he has got from the NHS has been superb and we should be proud of it.
Thank you to everyone for your well wishes, as I had said it was meant as a tribute and something I wanted to put down in writing. I will print it off because I want to show him what I really feel. If I tell him he will just mutter that I am a silly bugger.
It's ironic that many of you seem to have dads just like mine but then I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. I think I am turning into my old man by the day.

I'm often slightly reluctant to comment in blogs/threads such as this for fear of not being able to express myself properly. In my head there's a thin line between sympathy/attention and nosiness. Just because I don't ask questions, it doesn't mean I don't care. Few words can mean a lot to many people, and knowing that you're not alone can be a great source of comfort.

My Dad belongs to the same generation as most of you on here, he's 55. He grew up with The Beatles, Slade, The Jam and then I think he stopped looking for anything new after that. For him, nothing comes close to Glam Rock. I've no idea where I get my love of Bob Dylan from, because it's certainly not him, nor is it my mother. I shall ask her if the Postman from the mid-eighties used to whistle 'Like A Rolling Stone' on his 'round. The same goes with Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground and The Smiths (though perhaps he was too old for them). I do know I love The Beatles because of him though (probably more than he does actually). Ditto Motown and Bowie. He has the ideal job (for him anyway) as a Lorry Driver which allows him to listen to his own radio station 'Dad FM "all the way along the A14 to Felixstowe" '. I've been told the reception is notoriously poor and is only capable of being picked up inside the cab.

He'll probably never win Dad of the year, but if Kerry Katona can win Mum of the year, I'm glad of it. Family splits over the last few years have left me in the middle of a situatuion that I occasionally find difficult to be in, but those are reasons that I need not concern you with. Like a lot of people, he got married to the wrong woman at first, but he's a lot happier now he's found the 'one'. So, despite the circumstances that occured, I've no quarrel with him over it. It's given me two wonderful/frightening nieces for a start.

Steve, I'm grateful for your original post, and hope you and your Dad can spend another good few years together yet. Like I said in my original comments, I'm not too good with expressing me feelings, especially to a stranger, but I hope they're acceptable.

all the best to you and your Dad.

Steve, my very best wishes to you & your dad.

I thought your OP was very moving.

my Dad was of the same generation, & my admiration, love & respect for him was, & remains, huge.

I really hope things go well for you, your dad & the rest of your family.

all the best

Les

Enjoy your time together, and thanks for the post, I wish you well.