Update on my dad

Thank you so much for your prayers Friday.

We will know on Wednesday the final diagnosis. Today the lab will deliver all the studies to the doctor and only in case of something urgent he will call my mom and dad. If nothing urgent comes up they have an appointment Wednesday to go over the treatment.

We are only looking at 2 options right now: One very bad one which is metastasis and the other which we hope for is the removal only of the prostate.

Because of certain health factor by my dad they will need to remove the prostate completly in a 5 hour operation. Not an easy and quite simple operation, but much better than the option of chemo etc.

I am simply amazed at my fathers strenght during this time.

As I have blogged here my dad was born in Germany of a German father and Mexican/German mother. He was born in the middle of Germany in 1939, weeks before the start of the 2nd World War.

His life has not been an easy one. Living through a war and then rebuilding your life from scratch is something that I have always admired from him.

My grandmother was a housewife (she had traveled to Germany to study from Mexico) and my grandfather a sales man.

My grand mother lost 2 of her brothers in the War. They were Mexican also studiying in Germany , but since they had German blood the Nazis did not let them leave Germany and sent them to the front. They were 16 and 17 years old. One never was found.

My dad barely survived his birth since he was born at only 7 months with very limited medical supplies. He had to be registered as an emergency since they thought he would not survive and the war also was approaching.

This is why he has the wrong name, one that my grandfather never used. My grandmother had to give him a name and they gave him the name of the nurses boyfriend. Yep.

My grandmother had to think up of a name and the nurse told her to use her boyfriends name. My poor father then had a name for life that nobody used in his family. He later was registered with the right name as a second name

He is the 3rd of 8th children, born 11 months apart from his older sister and therefore had to use a nurse maid since my grandmother was too weak to nurse.

He was baptized as a Lutheran. He later converted here from the example of my mom

My grandfather lost absolutely everything and they barely survived. My fathers town was one of the last bombed by the allies before the signing of the threathy of peace.

They should have never bombed my dads city since it was an episcopal city and also only had at the time children and women, but it was completly destroyed one night.

My father had to hide in a bomb shelter which later held many wounded people and due to the war spent most of his childhood sleeping dressed.

As Germany surrenderd his city was taken over by the Americans. He holds very fond memories of exchanging cigarrete butts he collected from the streets for chocolates with the soldiers.

My father came to Mexico as a refugee via NY helped by the Red Cross (Mexico gives preference to refugees from Mexican mothers and we have had several large immigrations of refugees such as Jews, Spanish and Lebanse. We have also a 30 thousand Germans here which came in the 19th century for mining and Beer brewery (the reason why we have great beers such as Corona) and a second large immigration after the 2nd WW. My family has come from both immigrations.

When my dad came to Mexico he lived crammed in a one room appartment with his mom and 4 siblings. My grandfather was detained in NY first and then Mexico for being German and was freed one year later.

Since they lost everything my grandmother had to work and my grandfather slowly tried to rebuild his life. He never spoke Spanish well and for many years my dad and his siblings had to take therapy and they had to be removed from the German school here since they could not take the very harsh discipline this school had at the time, also they were always ridiculed for their poverty.

My dad then went to Catholic school, but was not Catholic at the time.

During the first years of school here my dad whenever he heard an airplane hid under tables and he never wanted to sleep with his piyamas in case of a bombing

This is only part of his story and one day I will write more (for example he did not finish college and started from the lowest ranks of his company yet ended up being a director there) , but I wanted to explain a little about him and why I am slowly believing if anybody will beat cancer in any of its forms its him.

A person that has survived all of this and still enjoys life to the fullest, loves children and nature has in him a strenght that few of us know.

He is in no way bitter by what he had to endure. He sees it just as part of the cards he was dealt and this is the reason why he wanted my siblings and I to have the very best opportunities in life in terms of education. no luxuries, a very very small house but the opportunities he never had in terms of education.

My mom, me and my brother are very nervous of the news we will be told by the doctors Wednesday, yet my dad is joking, saying that one day he will die and you never ever know when and not to worry too much.

He is still looking out for all of us and living life to the fullest even when facing a cancer diagnosis.

I just hope to have his strenght someday.