Jilly Cooper

As time passed, my dad's weight loss was becoming more and more obvious. I continued asking the question, "Dad, how are you?" - "Mom, how's dad?"

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I'm probably going to take a ton of slack for this next comment: I love Survivor. Yeah, that's right. I am (well, was) a closet Survivor lover. 17 seasons of reality TV at it's very peak. Chel's parents got me into it. Every Thursday night, we meet up at the in-laws, eat Taco's and watch survivor. (By the way, once you get married, I think its mandatory that you set time aside on a regular basis to spend with your family - it's a great habit.)

It was on one of these evenings that I expressed to Gail (mother-in-law) how I was starting to worry about my dad. Gail was a nurse and was great at giving health advise. After I explained the weight loss to her, she began to suspect the worst.

We have a name for Gail - Jilly Cooper. From what I understand, Jilly is a famous mystery/conspiracy novelist. Gail is always coming up with the latest theories and explanations. Some might call it jumping too conclusions. Other's might even call it gossip. We call her Jilly Cooper. No matter what you call it, she's usually right - as she was in this instance.

She began to insist that I dig deeper with my parents - push for more specific answers than, "Yes Josh, your dad is fine! He's just loosing weight! Doing lots of walking." So I did...

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I can't speak on behalf of my parents - but I'm willing to suggest that the reason why they said, "everything is fine" was because they were too afraid of what might happen if the said, "something might be wrong". Blasted human nature! A part of me can't stand that my parents lived in denial for so long. But, another part of me wonders if I might have done the same.