COMEBACK STORY IS THE BEST STORY OF ALL

The comeback story usually falls into the sports file.

Everyone loves a comeback, except the losing side.

Muhammad Ali was a comeback fighter against Joe Frazier in 1971.

The Portland Trail Blazers were a comeback NBA champion in 1977.

My Dad had always said coming back was hard, that’s why so few sports greats make it.

Then he had his own comeback story.

He was one of a group of high school guys in the late forties and early fifties.

WWII had ended in 1945 and everyone came home in glory.

When Korea started, his group all decided to join the Marine Corps.

One of them decided not to and no one talked to him again.

The news about the Korean War in the early days was grim.

Grandpa somehow knew his boy wasn’t coming back and sold his horse and pistol and gear.

However, his Sonny had other plans after clearing a few things up.

He came home in glory, married his high school honey, and started family life.

Mom said the old man spent the first year of their marriage thrashing around the bed in nightmares about human wave attacks and being overrun.

Then he learned to calm down.

In all the time we had him growing up he was no different than any of the other dads around.

No shit-talk, didn’t need to prove himself to anyone because he’d already proven himself to the guys who needed someone to step up and save the day.

In junior high we learned enough to ask him about his time in the Marines.

“The history book says it was a ‘police action.’ Were you a policeman?”

“That’s what we did, policing up the Korean peninsula.”

His answer was good enough for us.

 

The Rest Of The Comeback Story

I wouldn’t say my Dad was a quiet man, he just didn’t talk about his wartime experiences.

After his funeral where his sons grabbed shovels and went to town on a dirt pile instead of leaving it to a backhoe, we all retired to the Marine Corps Club in Klamath Falls to drink beer and meet people.

One of the men was in his squad in Korea and told this story:

 

“After the incident in Korea, Wayne spent time in Japan recuperating from his wounds where he learned he was up for the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A stranger on the ward visited his bedside and told him what he could expect:

On the worst day of your life you survived and got out alive. When they give you the Medal of Honor you’ll have to relive that day the rest of your life. People want to know what happened.

As soon as he was able, Sergeant Gillaspie left the hospital without telling anyone. He went AWOL, absent without leave.

The Shore Patrol followed his trail back to Korea and arrested him while he was with his unit.

His commanding officer told him, “You were up for the Medal of Honor, but now we can’t give it to you. You earned it, but we can’t give to an AWOL. You’ve been downgraded to a Silver Star.”

He went back to his unit knowing he’d never have to relive that day if he didn’t want to.

His comeback story was owning it himself instead of joining a group whose presence was required at certain events.

He wanted to be a dad, not a war hero dad, and he got the job done without the extra notoriety.

He was just our dad and that was good enough for all of us.

 

My Comeback Story

Everyday is a comeback story for someone and we’ll never know.

Not today.

Everyone I talked to about cancer and cancer treatment had a bad story.

This went wrong, that went wrong, then more went wrong before something worse went wrong.

I had low expectations before I even started the downward slide of treatment, then the upward climb to recovery.

The future looked daunting, so I made a secret deal with myself: if I came out the other end disfigured and unrecognizable, I be the best disfigured guy anyone had ever heard of.

The guys I talked to had a few things go wrong and ended up less than satisfied.

If it wasn’t there thyroid it was their teeth, or their neck, their tongue, their cheek, but mostly their attitude.

I would work on my attitude, whatever that meant.

After the usual frightened to death moments of what am I doing to myself, and why, I hit the recovery trail.

If I was going to live on borrowed time, I wanted all there was.

But it turned out I hit all the important markers and have had no reoccurrence.

I take no credit, but looking back it still seems amazing that people show up for cancer killing, soul killing, death defying modern medicine.

They show up for a better life no matter what kind of life it might be.

Hopefully they find a life better than one with a chronic disease.

I did and I’m here to say it’s been much better than I expected.

I’ve seen my kids get married and start families of their own; I’ve seen my wife navigate every hurdle with grace and courage.

All I’ve done is keep a steady hand on the tiller of life and avoid the rocky shoreline.

I write a blog instead of run my mouth for self-promotion. I’m a blogger instead of a pitchman.

I deny my baby boomer status by not worshipping every sunset and sunrise a the most important event of the day.

What are the most important events of the day?

It’s not reviewing every grudge or animosity you’ve collected so far.

If nothing else, get new ones.

It’s not looking for blame in your Mom or Dad. If you are a Mom or a Dad, you know the drill. Who wants their kids telling them how bad they’ve been.

If you’re married, do something nice for your partner; if you’re not married try not to blame every man or woman.

Let your kids know more about you, your problems, and how you solved them. They could do worse.

By the time you get to our age, you’ve got at least one comeback story worth telling.

If not, you will. Count on it.

What have you made a comeback from?