Prostate Cancer

... South Bend Tribune March 30, 2006 Contact Us Print Story March 30.

2006 6:59AM Wrestling with God Tribune staff writer comes to grips with life through His people By HOWARD DUKESTribune Staff Writer Part 4 of a seriesI always knew I'd end up in somebody's oncology unit.

See, my father had cancer.

Died from it in 2000.

But still, I was surprised by my diagnosis last year.Guess I was thinking genetics is destiny and I'd go out like Pops - enlarged prostate in my late 50s, cancer about 13 years later, die from it about 10 years after that.

I'd be almost 80.

But that's not how it went down.

I was 41.It wouldn't be the first time my expectations about the way things should go clashed with how they went.

The first time was when my older sister died.Regina had always been sick, but I thought she'd seen the worst of it.

She was 15 and I was 13, and I felt I was becoming more than the annoying little brother.

I looked forward to our teenage years.

We'd go to football and basketball games in high school, and she'd hook me up with her friends.And then one day, it was all gone.That day was Dec.

14, 1977.

A gray, slushy Wednesday.

The paper said there were 10 shopping days until Christmas.

Regina had been home sick for a few days.My mother picked me up from school, dropped off some car-poolers and headed home.

We found Regina lying ...

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