allow any extra time or phone calls with my wife (his mom) as she went through chemo and surgeries. This was before more frequent phone calls. When my son called for Mother’s Day shortly after her diagnosis we could hear the strain and worry in his voice including the concern that he wouldn’t get to talk to his mom again until Christmas. You can be sure that our emails to him were frequent and detailed.

We made it through but that was not a fun aspect of all of this. I’ve forgiven his mission president, I think. Maybe his approach was the right one, I don’t know.