November 1 – Purple Hope and Saints

November 1 means a great deal to me.

It marks All Saints Day in honor of all the saints, known and unknown.

On November 1, 1966, my favorite football team came into existence – the New Orleans Saints.

It also marks the arrival of another saint to be. On November 1, 1946, Joseph C. Pinto was born.

My father.

He would have been 68 today.

Pancreatic cancer claimed him at the age of 60.

And yes, November 1 marks the beginning of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.

I think you may have heard of this deadly disease. It’s been in the news quite often lately. A little too much, if you ask me.

Truth be told, I’d never heard of pancreatic cancer before my father was diagnosed. Maybe that makes me sound a bit ignorant, uneducated. I don’t know. Maybe I was & still am. Cancer, let alone pancreatic cancer, was something that was always over there for me. Waaaay over there, in the distance. Another time zone. Another planet. Of course, I would hear cancer mentioned on the news – maybe spoken about in someone else’s conversation – but with so many horrible events occurring in today’s world as it is, I never paid strict attention. As with most everything in life, you don’t lift your head up and take notice unless it happens to you.

Then it happened to my dad.

The first part of my father’s brave story soon awaits…

(Part One: Renovations; Shaken Foundations coming soon…)