Editor’s note: Stewart Scott-Curran is an art executive for CNN.
(CNN) — It was an typical day usually before Halloween. we had arrived home after picking adult my 3-year-old daughter from propagandize when we listened my phone ringing.
I missed a initial call from my father-in-law. He called right back.
Fighting cancer with mustaches
I knew what he was job about. we took a phone to my wife, Sara, and let her take a call. About 10 seconds into a conversation, she crumbled into a store on a floor.
The exam formula were back. My father-in-law had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
We had feared this was going to come. He had shown some worrisome symptoms for a while, though zero unequivocally prepares we for that moment. We cried, and we upheld my mother a best we could.
We talked about how we could help, being that we live in Atlanta and my in-laws live usually outward Chicago. Would we move? Would we take time off from work? Would we compensate for a helper to assistance him recover? What will his diagnosis be? How will it impact him? Will it make him better?
A few hours after being introduced to my father-in-law roughly 6 years ago, we assimilated his family in roving in Chicago Critical Mass. Several thousand associate cyclists had taken to rush hour in downtown Chicago to denote that “we are traffic, too.”
The cops close a eventuality down after a while. There we was, looking during a male who we knew would be my father-in-law, lifting his bicycle above his head, cheering “F*** a police!”
I desired him instantly.
The one thing we do know about his diagnosis: We will proceed it with a same bluntness, appetite and “stick-it-to-the-man” genius that he has taken to each other plea he’s had.
He is due to have medicine soon, and a augury looks hopeful. we know this opinion will mount him in good stead for a full recovery.
When we got that fatal phone call, we satisfied that we were usually a integrate of days divided from Movember, a month when “Mo-Bros” everywhere join army to grow ridiculous-looking mustaches in a name of lifting recognition and supports for men’s health issues, privately prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.
It was a judgment that seemed to fit perfectly. So we rummaged around a lavatory drawer for my long-lost razor.
The final time we was totally bereft of facial hair was a night my daughter was innate scarcely 4 years ago. We were vital in Amsterdam during a time, and after 24 hours or so during a hospital, we were a unapproachable relatives of a 6-pound baby girl.
As my mother and a new gold of fun slept, we rushed home to collect garments for Sara and other sundries that had been lost in a rush to a hospital. we suspicion we would do a decent thing and purify myself adult a bit before returning to a sanatorium in a morning.
A showering and a shave, we thought. But we was so sleepy during that indicate that we didn’t comprehend we had left a ensure off my electric razor. Beard … gone. we didn’t commend a chairman underneath.
I’ve had facial hair ever since, and it unequivocally felt bizarre to trim it off again for Movember. It done me consider about that night during a sanatorium and reminded me of a new clarity of shortcoming we felt to my daughter and wife.
This time, that clarity of shortcoming comes from a opposite place.
This time we feel an requirement to mount with my father-in-law, to support and respect him in a best and usually approach we know how.
When people stop me during work and ask me because we shaved my brave off, we have a good forgive to speak about him and a form of male he is. It never fails to give me a open in my step and a good clarity of confidence, purpose and camaraderie.
Ultimately, we consider that’s what Movember is all about.
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