It didn’t take me long to find the refrigerator and snack drawer at Poudre Valley Memorial Hospital.

Inside the fridge were small cups of Jell-O, vanilla pudding, and containers of fruit juice. Individual packets of graham crackers and saltines filled the drawer.

I wasn’t sure if the snacks were for staff, patients, or visitors, but nobody said anything when I helped myself that morning.

Bill’s surgery to remove his neck cancer had taken place the previous day, and Bill was dozing in his hospital bed when I sneaked out for a snack.

We didn’t know it then, but this would be the first of several surgeries to rid Bill of cancer.

When Dr. X., the ear, nose, and throat surgeon, came to see me after completing the surgery, I don’t recall asking, “Did you get it all?”

Did Bill ever ask him?

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