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Newsletter for June 2012
Live Your Life So That You Will Have No Regrets!
by Nancy Yucius
When I was growing up, I remember my mother saying dozens of
times, “Live your life so that at the end of it you’ll have no
regrets.” She sure did. She was her city’s first licensed female
pilot, went alone in 1936 on a six-month bicycling tour of
Europe, raised three girls and helped my dad build their
retirement house. She did all the things she wanted to do and
died at peace with her life in 2001 at age 88.
Living my life so I’d have “no regrets” was a lesson I took in
and believed in. I saved dimes and quarters while paying my way
through college to save for my own three-month tour of Europe.
I’ve gone up in a hot-air balloon, traveled extensively, worked
for good causes in my church and taught hundreds of children to
read during my 23-plus-year career as a special education
teacher for Massachusetts public schools.
My husband, David, and I raised three happy, productive
children, all married now, and enjoy our eight grandchildren.
I’ve been lucky enough to have had a supportive husband who has
allowed me to live my life as I wanted to live it. He did double
duty around the house when I went back to school to get my
master’s degree, watched nervously as I took a ride on a Harley
and silently cringed when I insisted on going parasailing. He
worriedly wished me bon voyage several times as I traveled far
and wide during summers when he had to work.
I never worried, though, because I abide by this life-affirming
passage I found a few years ago. This, I believe: “Everyone is
dying all the time. Everyone is also living all the time. It’s
all in your perspective which one you’re experiencing! Choose
wisely.” It’s so much like my mother’s advice. And it’s helping
me now.
Eight months ago, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with colon
cancer. Since then, I’ve had surgeries and several rounds of
chemotherapy. Statistics say I have about another year to live.
Maybe I do, or maybe I’ll have more. No matter: I refuse to let
cancer change my philosophy. When I feel well, I pack in as many
experiences as I can. I visit friends, travel, laugh, read
wonderful novels, play with our grandchildren and cherish those
I love.
I believe in living my life. At some point — hopefully much
later than the doctors predict — I’ll feel too poor to enjoy
what used to give me pleasure. Then, I hope to do just as my
mother did. I’ll reminisce with family and friends about my
wonderful life experiences. I’ll savor my memories. And I’ll say
to anyone who’ll listen, “I believe you should live your life so
that at the end of it you will have no regrets.”
Nancy Yucius is a retired special education teacher living in
Avon, Massachusetts. An avid reader and life-long traveler, she
recently returned from a five-week cruise of Scandinavia and
Europe. Yucius credits her family and her church, where she’s
been a deacon for 18 years, for supporting her during her
cancer.
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