A Personal Update of Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, a holiday devoted to gathering with the people we love and reflecting on the blessings that shape our lives. It is a day to pause, appreciate abundance, and recognize the steady presence of gratitude even in seasons that feel uncertain or overwhelming. This year, our understanding of gratitude has expanded in ways we never expected.

Many of you have followed the Trophy Husband’s medical journey over the past several months. His diagnosis of brain cancer was a seismic shift that altered the landscape of our daily lives. What began with memory lapses and speech issues quickly escalated to a major surgery and the start of an intensive treatment plan. Since our last update on Father’s Day, an unexpected setback landed Troy back in the hospital as the chemo weakened his immune system to the point that he required emergency transfusions and a bone marrow biopsy. It was a frightening moment, and one that reminded us that this path is long, unpredictable, and often much harder than it appears from the outside.

Yet even with these challenges, we have so much to be thankful for.

Troy’s surgeon did outstanding work. Not only was the tumor largely removed, but the incision has also healed so cleanly that the scar is barely noticeable. His cognitive recovery has been remarkable. His memory returned after surgery, and although the months leading up to the diagnosis remain a blur for him, the progress he has made is nothing short of astonishing.

We are thankful that the initial radiation and chemotherapy appear to be doing their job. While the monthly bursts of additional chemo treatments sap Troy’s energy levels, the first two rounds were otherwise relatively uneventful. We have ten more of those remaining. Every MRI has brought encouraging news, with no sign of remanence or recurrence. Each positive scan feels like a victory.

We are grateful for the medical research that enabled his treatment protocol. Had all this occurred in 2019, Troy’s tumor would have been classified and treated very differently. Science has changed everything. The discovery of a specific mutation and the development of new therapeutic approaches have reshaped not only his prognosis but also our sense of what is possible. Medical progress is a gift created by people who devote their lives to pushing the boundaries of knowledge. This year, that gift feels deeply personal.

We are thankful for an extraordinarily strong, supportive, and compassionate medical team. Every physician, nurse, technician, and specialist has seemed like exactly the right person at exactly the right moment. Their expertise and their humanity have guided us through every turn.

We are blessed with the unwavering support of family and friends, both inside and outside of tennis. Our tennis community has shown up with an intensity that has humbled us. The friends who do not own a racquet have shown up just as fiercely. The strength of that collective support has carried us more than once when our own strength felt thin.

We are thankful that while it will be a long time before the Trophy Husband steps onto a tennis court for real competition, he has been able to go out to our local park courts and tap a few balls around. There is something quietly triumphant about that. Tennis has always been woven into the rhythm of our lives, and seeing him out there again, even gently, is a reminder of how far he has already come.

Gratitude does not erase hardship, but it changes how we move through it. It steadies us. It strengthens us. It reminds us that even in the most difficult seasons, the good remains visible if we are willing to look for it.

This Thanksgiving, we are grateful for healing, for progress, for resilience, for community, for science, for skillful hands, and for the small everyday moments that we no longer take for granted. Most of all, we are grateful for hope.