It’s impossible to imagine what you would do if the doctor put a limit on the days you have left to live. How do you prioritize a lifetime of dreams in a limited number of days?
Chicago author Amy Krouse Rosenthal was faced with this unfortunate dilemma after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015.
Rather than going skydiving or buying a one-way plane ticket to Tahiti, she simply wrote an essay titled “You May Want to Marry My Husband.”
The piece is written as a “dating profile” for Jason, Amy’s husband of 26 years.
She starts by telling readers:
“I’m facing a deadline, in this case, a pressing one. I need to say this (and say it right) while I have a) your attention, and b) a pulse.”
Amy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in September 2015. She had been experiencing symptoms of appendicitis when she and Jason rushed to the hospital only to learn that their future was no longer certain.
The diagnosis came on the same day that the couple’s youngest son left for college. Excited to embark on what was supposed to be the next chapter of their life together—empty nesting—Amy knew that the diagnosis was instead a foreshadowing of the final chapter.
“No wonder the word cancer and cancel look so similar.”
Amy admits she’s been meaning to write the piece for a while now, and it’s imperative that she does it soon. So after reliving the moment she knew everything was changing, the author goes on to introduce the love of her life: