We rambled back across the country in six days. The trip was melancholy because we knew we were returning to our lives of cancer treatment.

We used the time to talk about practical matters of the future. Corinne had been exploring the idea of going to school to become a dental hygienist, a three-year course that would require significant preparation in math and science. She wasn't happy with her choice of schools in New Mexico. We both felt that our idyllic home on the mountainside was an impractical place to live if each of us was driving to work and school every day.

We were concerned about our mounting debt and our miniscule income. We began facing the fact that, due to the cancer, our lives would be changing dramatically.
Though I spent much of my career as a professional change agent, my colleagues always joked that I was the person who most hated upheavals in my own life. I could hear the waves of change roaring just over the horizon.