One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.

Call home at least once a week. It's a proven fact that we call home less the older we get. And that's wrong. It should be the other way around. As we get older, our parents get older.

We can't change it. We have to decide how we'll respond.

The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.

Experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.

To be cliché, death is a part of life and it's going to happen to all of us. I have the blessing of getting a little bit of advance notice and I am able to optimize my use of time down the home stretch.

Whatever news we get about the scans, I’m not going to die when we hear it. I won’t die the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. So today, right now, well this is a wonderful day. And I want you to know how much I’m enjoying it.” I thought about that, and about Jai’s smile. I knew then. That’s the way the rest of my life would need to be lived.