You Don't Have to Do It Alone: Stan & Sue Stanek on AML, the Gratitude Calendar That Never Stopped, and What It Means to Be Blessed to Be a Blessing

In December 2016, Stan Stanek went to the eye doctor about some spots he'd noticed while reading the newspaper. By four o'clock that afternoon, he was in the emergency room. By the end of the week, he had a port, a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, and a very large calendar taped to his hospital room wall — where Sue wrote down something good about every single day, for two years.

In this episode of The Bridges Between Us, Stan and Sue share the full story: eighteen months of grueling treatment, two failed attempts at a bone marrow transplant at Mayo Clinic, 18 trips to MD Anderson in Houston for a clinical trial drug that worked when nothing else did, and 100 days living in Rochester while Stan recovered from a transplant made possible by his brother's perfectly matched bone marrow.

They also share what carried them through: faith, humor, each other, and a CaringBridge page that grew to 1,200 visits and 35,000 touches — including the post that brought 165 people to a prayer service when they were expecting twenty. And the yellow ribbons tied to every tree in their neighborhood the day they finally drove home.

Stan is now nine years out. He walked his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. He has a grandchild. He and Sue mentor up to twelve AML patients and caregivers at a time. And on his wall, still, is a gratitude calendar that never really stopped.

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