Prologue: A healthy 76-year-old with no medical conditions, healthy diet, exerciser, etc., received notice last year of terminal cancer due to inhalation of asbestos fibers, some sixty years ago from unknown causes. My guess is the renovation of my folk’s basement in 1963. Below you will find a summary of the instant I found out about this disease. 

On Friday, March 12, 2023, in Wabasha, Minnesota, I signed on to my Mayo Clinic portal account to read the most recent test results from a lung biopsy the previous week. I was somewhat prepared for this since, from the beginning of this ailment, including an emergency room visit December 23, 2022, the word “cancer” has been mentioned; my California pulmonologist had mentioned the "C" word, and a following PET scan and MRI also had referenced cancer.

So, I am reading the Mayo biopsy results, which confirm a diagnosis of Mesothelioma. A brief web search reveals this to be an incurable lung disease with usually a rather short life expectancy. I’m sitting in my favorite chair, coffee mug in hand, looking at the mighty Mississippi flowing outside my window on a wonderfully clear morning. An adult bald eagle flies low to the water, heads downstream and under the bridge, an extremely unusual occurrence, and passes my window, and then immediately takes a 180-degree turn, again flies under the bridge, this time upstream—and not only under the bridge but close to the water and Wabasha shoreline. It is the closest a bald eagle has ever flown past our window in the eight years my wife and I have lived here. I am breathless, in awe of this magnificent bird gliding past me not once but twice while I am digesting news that impacts my life expectancy.

I have long found comfort and inspiration and purpose in the bald eagle. My lifelong passion for the eagle has inspired me to experience life at a higher level, given me meaning and a sense of direction through years of collecting eagle memorabilia, learning more about the eagle symbolically, historically, culturally, and ornithologically, and sharing what I’ve collected and learned. A 40,000-piece collection, donated to the National Eagle 

Center, a book, a museum in the works and legislation to finally recognize the bald eagle as our national bird.

I am not a particularly spiritual person in any religious context; however, I have an enduring spiritual connection to the bald eagle. I once had the opportunity to release, with my bare hands, a formerly injured bald eagle back to the wilds on the banks of the Chilkat River at the Alaskan Chilkat Bald Eagle Reserve some 20 years ago. It has been one of my life’s most memorable events. I feel kinship with the Native American spiritual connection to this magnificent bird, the king of birds. The eagle is my spirit animal, my guide, and my partner.

Epilogue:  Mayo, an easy drive through corn and soybean farms from Wabasha, has been taking good care of me with my 19th infusion of immunotherapy, every three weeks. Five blasts of radiation stopped the alien growth. I feel fine with a few minor side effects along the way.  No anxiety, no depression, living my bucket list of numerous eagle projects at local and national levels.  Just bought two new pairs of shoes and plan to wear them out.