50th Class reunion

My wife and I had a great time this weekend at my 50th class reunion.  We drove 350 miles to southwestern Illinois and spent the evening with a lot of people whom I haven't seen since graduation way back in 1963.

I found out death has claimed 19 individuals out of a class of 160. 

Several times I looked around at the fairly large group of men my age who were similarly enjoying the reunion and found myself wondering if any of them had ever had to deal with prostate cancer.  Or, were any of those who did not attend perhaps dealing with health problems such as PCa?

But, I didn't mention my experience with prostate cancer to anybody at the reunion.  The whole issue seemed completely irrelevant, and I just didn't see any point in mentioning anything about cancer.

I wonder if anyone else has found themselves in a similar situation and how you may have handled it.  I have absolutely no problem talking about my experience with cancer, but the reunion just didn't seem like the right time or place.

 

clocknut -

I also attended my 50 year high school class reunion a couple of months ago (I also was a 1963 high school graduate, coincidentally).

Like you, I hadn't planned on saying anything to anybody there about my PCa experience, as it didn't seem relevant to why we were there at the reunion, and I thought that some people might consider it a downer to be discussing personal health issues at what was supposed to be a happy occasion.

Naturally, however, I did look around at the guys there, my classmates, all of us now 67, 68 years old, wondering to myself just how many may have already been doing battle with the beast, or, just as possible, had PCa and didn't even know it (yet).

Then something interesting happened. I was talking with Joyce, a good friend of mine from the high school days. She had married Ed, also in our class, and they were still together after 50 years. Ed was on the other side of the room, talking to some guys.

While I was talking to Joyce, on health issues in general, it just happened to slip out of me that I had been treated for PCa with radiation last year, but I was doing OK now.

Joyce then got a rather surprised look on her face, and said "Oh my my! Ed had surgery for that very same thing about six months ago!" Surprised to hear this, I excused myself, went over and found Ed on the other side of the room, where he was talking to three other guys from our class, said "hi" and shook hands with him and the others. Then, after a few minutes or so, I worked into the conversation what Joyce had told me, and Ed said "Oh yeah, had the RP and I'm doing fine now!"

But what really made it interesting then was that two of the other guys standing there also chimed in, one of them saying he had also had surgery for it some time back, and the other saying he had recently been diagnosed and was considering his options! So, the bunch of us standing there wound up talking PCa shop for the next twenty minutes or so!

I even told them what a great site we have here in HW PC, and told them how to get here. I bet the guys at least came and looked at it, I hope so.

Actually, I still don't understand why it should seem such a surprise that so many guys our age have this thing, even to us here sometimes, since we all know the frequency of it as men get older.

Still, it was interesting to hear about it as I did from people in my high school class. Maybe that's because we associate our high school classmates with youth, and never changing or something.

Anyway, I found the above an interesting experience.

I graduated in 1960, have never even been invited to a class reunion. Like Groucho/Woody. I like belonging to a club that does not want me as a member and reckon I always have. And yes it gets worse/better??, as I age…… There is a certain solace in filling your space to T……..

I never cared about class reunions, and have always felt lucky that since I moved out of state and have a fairly common last name they never could find me. I did talk to an old friend soon after our 25th who attended and confirmed to me I missed nothing. I have to fly back to Ohio this September, I doubt I'll look up any old classmates and it will likely be the last time I return home. I'm only doing it because my brother inlaw died last May and I promised my sister that after missing his funeral I'd come back later to see her and her grandkids or else I'd never go back there again.

clocknut said...

I found out death has claimed 19 individuals out of a class of 160.

I have a 50th coming up in September, but haven't yet decided if I want to go. But FYIW, my class size was about 160-165 also, and we've had 24 deaths so far that I know of. So maybe that's about average, though I hope not. In our case we lost 4 before any of us turned 21 - two in car crashes, one in Vietnam, and one murdered by her husband. But since then it's been mostly cancers of one kind or another. We also had a guy who was among Americans Saddam rounded as hostages in the early days of the Iraq war. Luckily he eventually got home intact.