CNBNews

Cleary’s Fantasy Football Fanatic Stricken

  Dan Watson, Cleary’s Notebook Fantasy Football Fanatic columnist, is fighting a battle. While it has nothing to do with football it does have some things in common with that sport.

One similarity is that he gets to pick his own team members—from a wonderful group of doctors that make up the Virtua-Fox Chase Cancer Center team of professionals. In addition, he picked one of the best playing fields, around. Fox Chase’ doctors and nurses know exactly what to do to make a patient comfortable, encouraged, and ready to tackle the disease.

When we moved here to Gloucester City in September, it was our intention to settle into this lovely community and make a difference. We looked forward to living a simple life, filled with new friends and adventures. We never expected that Dan would be diagnosed with Stage II esophageal cancer before the last leaf fell from the pretty little tree, planted by the Tree & Beautification Committee, outside our door. We never expected he would lose 50 pounds, be admitted to the ICU due to malnutrition, or that he would have a feeding tube implanted directly into his stomach so that he wouldn’t starve to death. We never thought I would have to drive him to a specialist, five days a week, so he could receive radiation that inevitably caused him to be unable to swallow.

And we never expected he would be unable to walk the length of our kitchen, much less the distance from our house to Carr’s Hardware, his favorite store, in the ensuing months.

But life throws things at us, sometimes. We can either receive and score a goal when those things come our way or we can drop the ball and wait for the opposing team to crush us. Dan and I have chosen the latter and will stand and fight for as long as it takes.

I don’t know what the future holds for us. I’m not sure our Fantasy Football Fanatic will be able to hold instructional classes as he had planned. I’m not even sure if he will be able to supply Cleary’s readers with insight into Fantasy Football this coming season. I am sure, however, that he will do his best to entertain and instruct, for as long as he is able. He’s that kind of guy.

If you are so inclined, drop him a line on Cleary’s Notebook. I’ll prop him up to read whatever is printed and I’ll know he’ll smile. When he is able he’ll respond.

In the meantime, many thanks to all who responded to last season’s column. It meant the world to Dan, and to me, too. We are honored that Bill Cleary allows us to write for him. We hope Dan can continue to write when he has conquered this terrible disease. We are blessed with good friends, great neighbors, and the support of an entire city.

God bless all of you.

Sincerely,

Dawn Watson

Owner and Lead Trainer, Brother of the Wolf, LLC