Wow, so many anniversaries continue to roll in this week.

A Thursday a year ago, April 30, was when I officially got my acute myeloid leukemia diagnosis and immediately started chemo therapy at Duke Hospital in Durham, N.C.

A year later I am … 

• I am down to six pills for four days a week I think, and seven pills for three days.

• I was bound and determined to walk the dogs for at least two miles, and reached 2.2 miles on two days or maybe three in the last 10 days. I am tired afterwards but it’s a good milestone for me.

• The puppies have both lost weight, which the vet said is impressive during the Covid pandemic, so the walks and playing ball in the back yard are paying off for all of us.

• There have been a few days where I’ve struggled, maybe due to some remnants of host vs. graft disease. It resulted in a rash, which seems to be going OK now, and an upset stomach. Speaking of the rash…

• I might be able to get the Covid vaccine once the rash and everything is good, so perhaps mid/late-May or sometime in June.

I’ve seen some incredible things the last two weeks. I’m sure my friend Amanda is too busy to read something like this, but she had a miracle baby April 17, Emma.

The legend of Norm could have a happy ending. Norm was a young, energetic, athletic chocolate pit bull, who arrived at Saving Grace NC. He immediately scaled the metal fence to go after chickens, and it didn’t end well for the chickens.

That put Norm in a precarious position of he needed some exercise and ability to go to the bathroom during the day, so he was getting leash walked. My friend Nathan Mullins took it upon himself to walk Norm during his free time, and that graduated to having Norm to his house for fostering, to being fostered at least four nights a week while he went on weekend foster. I had seen this happen before with a athletic pit bull mix named Mazie, who needed a foster from a SG volunteer for 10 months before finding a home. The negative about being fostered is that there aren’t going to get someone to come through the SG gates and make that great first impression, which does sometimes happen.

What makes the situation more remarkable is that the Mullins’ have four dogs, two of which are “littles” so it had to be tricky at times at home. I think they know this but Nathan and his wife Katherine will always hold a special place in my heart. I volunteered with Katherine every Monday night for maybe a year or so, not the full shift, but when I could get there because she was my friend and needed help. When her dog family grew to four dogs, she elected to change her volunteering schedule.

I was a little burned out myself because I was doing one or two other shifts, but surprisingly after things became bumpy, Nathan stepped in to take over the Monday shift. So because of our friendship, I volunteered with him for a full year. Incidentally, I stopped by Saving Grace this past Sunday to say hello to some friends I haven’t seen in over a year because I needed a pick me up.

There will also be some players I covered in high school who will hear their names drafted by the NFL this week. 

It’s hard to see all the good prep football players in the state of North Carolina, but I’ve seen my fair share. Cornerback Caleb Farley (Virginia Tech), offensive lineman Landon Dickerson (Alabama), outside linebacker Chazz Surratt (UNC), wide receiver Sage Surratt (Wake Forest), wide receiver Dyami Brown (North Carolina), running back Javonte Williams (North Carolina), quarterback Jamie Newman (Wake Forest), Hamsah Nasirildeen (Florida State), Mark Gilbert (Duke) and defensive tackle Alim McNeill (NC State) could all hear their names called, who I watched in high school. I still remember being in a cold drizzle filming the Surratt brothers vs. a young Farley on a Monday night because game was postponed due to the weather. Farley and Chazz Surratt both played quarterback in high school.

I also have seen some sadness this past few weeks.

The daughter of my mom’s cousin passed away at age 66 about 10-14 days ago. I knew her, and her two children, but wasn’t close because of geographic differences. I was able to catch up with Jeremy, her son, over Facebook and maybe I can rekindle more family relationships in the future.

My co-worker Lou Somogyi, who covered Notre Dame for Blue & Gold Illustrated,  wrote a story during a Saturday morning, went to play tennis and then suffered a heart attack at age 58. 

The one time I got to meet Lou in person was also the first time I’ve always been to Notre Dame, even though I grew up two hours from South Bend, Ind. Lou gave us what I dubbed our “unofficial visit” which recruiting fans would understand. He knows Notre Dame inside-out and is an encyclopedia of Fighting Irish knowledge. He’ll be tremendously missed and this one will sting for me for a while.

Then a basketball player named Terrence Clarke died this past Saturday in a car crash in the Los Angeles area. Clarke is from Boston, attended Kentucky where his season was limited due to injury and then declared for the NBA Draft and signed with LeBron James’ agent, Rich Paul, of Klutch Sports. He came out to Los Angeles to train, and in his second day there, he was reportedly going at a high speed, ran a red light, avoided a car and ran into a pole. He also didn’t have his seat belt on correctly.

I first saw Clarke in August before the start of his freshman season. It was obvious then he was going to be a top 1 0 recruit in the country, and he ended up challenging for the No. 1 spot. He later ended up transferring to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., and they came through Raleigh for the John Wall Holiday Invitational. I also saw Clarke with his Expressions Elite traveling team and I believe at the NBA Players Association Camp. I wasn’t close to Clarke, but probably saw him play around 8-10 times on the prep level, and he was likely a late first-round pick or maybe an early second round pick.