9 August 2016 - Two days into a long-dreamed-of family vacation to Italy in August 2013, my wife, Ronna, became nauseated, unusually tired and short of breath.

One of the great non-complainers in American history, she insisted that it was no big deal and valiantly tried to join in on various outings in the Italian countryside. But, after a few increasingly difficult days, even Ronna knew that it was time to go to the emergency room.

In a small hospital in Tuscany, doctors identified the apparent source of the problem: a pericardial effusion, or a buildup of fluid around the heart. Ronna was transferred to a larger medical center in Arezzo, where a pericardial tap was performed. Immediately afterward, in a scene that still plays on a loop in my mind’s eye, the hospital’s chief of cardiology informed me that, while the fluid was gone, he was quite sure that Ronna had lung cancer.

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