A Lucky Life Interrupted (18 page)

If that seems like a mail-order list of clichéd goals, add this: I want more mornings at the seaside in a white terry cloth robe, a large mug of black coffee made with
freshly ground beans in a plunge pot or in a filter-lined ceramic cone, Meredith near, reading aloud a quirky item from
The New Yorker
or an email from a grandchild.

Maybe I'll think back to that summer night in 1961 when Meredith and I were sitting on a beach along the Missouri River near our hometown. We'd been seeing each other for nine months, a relationship that surprised her friends and mine. Thanks to Meredith, I was a reformed hell-raiser. She had written me a scathing letter the preceding autumn about my errant ways. I had gone from being a high school whiz kid to being an aimless, hard-drinking, skirt-chasing college student of subpar grades, eventually dropping out.

We'd known and liked each other through high school. She was amused by my ability to twin achievement with roguish behavior.

I admired her discipline, scholarship, and cheerfulness framed by timeless beauty.

When I put my life together after her scolding letter, she apologized for being so harsh and I said, “No, I had it coming.” One thing led to another and we were soon dating steadily.

That night on the beach she had recounted how a mutual friend had asked her where this relationship was going and she had answered, “Well, I think we should get married.”

I was stunned and momentarily at a loss for words, a rare condition for me.

Really? Yes!

There on the shore of the Missouri River my life took a new direction. More than a half century later I count that occasion as the night my lucky life took a turn that endures to this day because it has been shared with Meredith.

Has cancer changed me? Am I a better person? That's for others to judge. All I know is that in family, access to excellent care, the resources to pay for it, the chance to remain a journalist, and with a cohort of interesting friends, I remain a lucky guy.

So far the early reassurance about my condition is holding up. I will die someday but it is not likely to be the result of multiple myeloma.

I do think about mortality in ways I did not before the diagnosis. It no longer seems a faint, distant reality, in part because I've experienced the ruthless nature of cancer. Simultaneously, at age seventy-five I've moved into the neighborhood of life where there are few long-term leases.

It is not enough to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” It is also a time to quietly savor the advantages of
a lucky life and use them to fill every waking moment with emotional and intellectual pursuits worthy of the precious time we have.

Life, what's left.

Bring it on.

Tom Brokaw

Two six four oh

This book is dedicated to
the next generation of our family,
our grandchildren:
Claire Vivian Fry, Meredith Lynne Fry,
Vivian Aranka Simon,
Charlotte Bird Simon, and
Archer Thomas Merritt Brokaw
.

Five reasons to live long
and drink deeply from their love
.

I am eternally grateful for the medical expertise, general wisdom, availability, and compassion of each member of my medical team, beginning with Doctors Andrew Majka and Morie Getz at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; Doctors Heather Landau and Eric Lis at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York; and Dr. Ken Anderson at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard.

My home-grown and very personal physician, Dr. Jennifer Brokaw, was an invaluable member of the team and brought with her large measures of familial love and daughter-father candor.

Our two other daughters, Andrea and Sarah, and our sons-in-law, Allen and Charles, were also part of the extended Team Brokaw.

Steven Brill's personal friendship and his seminal work,
America's Bitter Pill
, first a magazine article and then a book on the complexities, contradictions, irrationalities, and genius of the American healthcare system, were invaluable resources. Another journalist, Frank Lalli, personally went down the multiple myeloma road before I did. His personal experience and editor's eye were beacons for me throughout.

As she has on past book projects, Ruby Shamir turned her
critical research eyes to the many questions about drugs, treatments, types of cancer, and the changing place of hospitals in our daily lives.

At home and in the office, Geri Jansen, Goldine Nicholas, and Mary Casalino were all part of Team Brokaw, keeping me on schedule personally, professionally, and for my medical life. They're uniformly cool, efficient, and resourceful in keeping me vertical and moving forward.

My other family, the men and women of NBC News, were there for me here and abroad, as they always have been. Mike Barnicle and Ann Finucane were there early and often. Stephen Burke, CEO and president of NBCUniversal, generously gave me time to heal and maintain my own work schedule.

This is the seventh book I've written with the encouragement and wise oversight of Kate Medina, my muse, editor, and friend. I wouldn't start another without her. Her encouragement, light but ever-so-effective touch, and friendship were, as they always have been, a tonic during dark days of trying simultaneously to deal with cancer and write about the experience.

Others at Random House include Gina Centrello, Susan Kamil, Tom Perry, Avideh Bashirrad, Benjamin Dreyer, Dennis Ambrose, Evan Camfield, Carolyn Foley, Paolo Pepe, Carole Lowenstein, Theresa Zoro, Sally Marvin, Barbara Fillon, Sanyu Dillon, Leigh Marchant, Erika Seyfried, Anna Pitoniak, and Derrill Hagood.

Finally, a deep bow to all those who know me only as a broadcast journalist and yet took time to write or signal in other ways that they were sending best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery. As I often say, if there's an oxymoron in my business it is “humble anchorman,” but this has been a humbling experience.

BY TOM BROKAW

The Greatest Generation

The Greatest Generation Speaks

An Album of Memories

A Long Way from Home

Boom!

The Time of Our Lives

A Lucky Life Interrupted

T
OM
B
ROKAW
is the author of six bestsellers:
The Greatest Generation
,
The Greatest Generation Speaks
,
An Album of Memories
,
A Long Way from Home
,
Boom!
, and
The Time of Our Lives
. A native of South Dakota, he graduated from the University of South Dakota with a degree in political science. He began his journalism career in Omaha and Atlanta before joining NBC News in 1966. Brokaw was the White House correspondent for NBC News during Watergate, and from 1976 to 1981 he anchored
Today
on NBC. He was the sole anchor and managing editor of
NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw
from 1983 to 2005. In 2008 he anchored
Meet the Press
for nine months following the death of his friend Tim Russert. He continues to report for NBC News, producing long-form documentaries and providing expertise during breaking news events. Brokaw has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including two duPonts, three Peabody Awards, and several Emmys. In 2014, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He lives in New York and Montana.