Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, a holiday dedicated to gathering with the people we love and reflecting on the blessings that shape our lives. It’s a day to pause, appreciate abundance, and recognize the steady presence of gratitude, even in times that feel uncertain or overwhelming. This year, our understanding of gratitude has expanded in ways we never expected.
Many of you have been following Trophy Husband’s medical journey over the past few months. His brain cancer diagnosis was a seismic shift that changed the landscape of our daily lives. What started with memory loss and speech problems quickly escalated into 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 chemo weakened his immune system so much that he required emergency transfusions and a bone marrow biopsy. It was a frightening moment, reminding us that this path is long, unpredictable and often much more difficult than it seems from the outside.
But despite these challenges, we have so much to be grateful for.
Troy’s surgeon did an excellent job. Not only has the tumor been largely removed, but the incision has also healed so beautifully that the scar is barely visible. His cognitive recovery is remarkable. His memory returned after the surgery, and although the months leading up to the diagnosis remain vague for him, the progress he has made has been nothing short of astonishing.
We are grateful that the initial radiation and chemotherapy seem to be doing their job. While the monthly bursts of additional chemo treatments sapped Troy’s energy levels, the first two rounds were otherwise relatively uneventful. We have ten left. Each MRI has brought encouraging news, with no signs of remanence or recurrence. Every positive scan feels like a victory.
We are grateful for the medical research that made his treatment protocol possible. If all of this had taken place 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 its prognosis, but also our sense of what is possible. Medical progress is a gift created by people who dedicate their lives to pushing the boundaries of knowledge. This year that gift feels very personal.
We are grateful for an extremely strong, supportive and compassionate medical team. Every doctor, nurse, technician and specialist seemed like just the right person at just the right time. Their expertise and their humanity guided us through every phase.
We are blessed with the continued support of family and friends, both inside and outside of tennis. Our tennis community has come with an intensity that has humbled us. The friends who don’t own a racket showed up just as fiercely. The power of that collective support has carried us more than once when our own strength has felt thin.
We are thankful that while it will be a long time before Trophy Husband steps onto a tennis court for real competition, he has been able to head to our local park courts and hit a few balls. There’s something quietly triumphant about that. Tennis has always been woven into the rhythm of our lives, and seeing him there again, even quietly, reminds us of how far he has come.
Gratitude doesn’t take away hardships, but it does change the way we move through them. It keeps us stable. 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 skilled hands, and for the small everyday moments we no longer take for granted. Above all, we are grateful for hope.
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