Sunday, February 6, 2011 10:08 AM, CST

Sunday, February 6, 2011 10:08 AM, CST

Stephanie, Ellie and I got back from the Caribbean on Friday February 4th. After we received the pathology report on the tumor, and after Stephanie made the decision to have a double mastectomy, the family decided to take an emergency Caribbean vacation. We figured it would be the last chance to get away for an extended time during the next year.



We flew directly to St Maarten and picked up a 40 ft catamaran in the port town of Marigot. Marigot is French speaking. We don’t speak French and most there spoke only broken English. In retrospect, this was probably a blessing. We didn’t need to tell anyone about our story or plight. Once away in the foreign town, we didn’t talk about the cancer much; the cancer didn’t seem real. That said, the vacation was dubbed, “The Breast Vacation Ever!”



The next day we cruised to Orient Beach. It’s a beautiful stretch of white sand with a great restaurant and plenty of action for Ellie. Ellie rented a jet ski and made sport of jumping the waves. Orient Beach is also known for its nude-only area. Yellow umbrellas mark the nudist beach. Apparently yellow is the universal color for nudists. If you saw a yellow umbrella, a yellow canopy on a boat, or yellow towels, you were sure to encounter naked bodies. Part of the fun for Stephanie was to watch the nude or topless beach walkers. Most were middle or older couples with sagging body parts. Stephanie has always had great breasts. I was attracted to her and them when we first met at the Heartthrob Nightclub in St Paul. She was a cocktail waitress and I was her manager. Twenty years later, Stephanie still has fantastic breasts and I will be sad to see them go. She watched the walkers on Orient Beach and would say, “my breast are better that those…”



From Orient Beach we sailed the twenty miles or so east to St Barths. St Barths is the vacation island of the rich and famous. The harbor is filled with mega yachts and beautifully crafted sailboats. We anchored outside the harbor at Shell Beach and spent a day on the beach sitting in the sun and another day snorkeling around the island. In town, Stephanie bought a single Tahitian pearl strung on a leather necklace. The necklaces are made by the 80 year old mother whose daughter ran the small shop. Stephanie told the daughter about her cancer. The daughter was very much into organic foods and herbal medicines. She recommended Argile Verte or “green clay” which Stephanie bought at a local drug store and smeared on her breasts that evening. St Barths seemed remote, you can see the outlines of St Maarten 15 miles away, the island of Saba 30 miles away with the tip of its volcano touching the clouds, and St Kitts further east, just a shaded silhouette.



As we sailed back and got closer the Marigot the anxiety slipped back into our lives. Some memorable moments though: “The Breast Dinner Ever” at Le Escargot where there were few other diners, lots of attention, and plenty of fruit-infused rum. Ellie a little sea sick on a bouncy tack back to Orient Beach. And me having to dock a giant 40-foot behemoth in a tight marina surrounded by onlookers.