Boxer Boldness

The following Inspirational Story was taken from Silver Linings: The Other Side of Cancer, published by the Oncology Nursing Press, Inc.

Many of our friends and relatives had been asking if they could help in any way. I decided to take them up on their offers. . . .

Have you noticed all the wild and crazy boxer shorts that are in department stores? Have you ever wondered who would buy them? Have you ever met a guy who had 43 pairs? Meet my husband, Dick Kimberly.

His prostate cancer was diagnosed in February of 1995. He had surgery in March, and the recovery seemed to go on forever. Every aspect of the recovery seemed longer and harder than what we had anticipated. We were both exhausted and discouraged from months of dealing with cancer when we learned that radiation treatments would also be necessary.

The day that Dick went in to be measured and marked for the radiation treatments was a particularly difficult day. Aside from being tired and scared, having people poking around in that area of your body is just plain embarrassing! Knowing this would continue daily for six weeks was difficult for him to deal with. He seemed to have reached an all-time low.

My husband is a very positive person and usually very outgoing and friendly. He likes to joke with people and looks at the bright side of things. Even though he was feeling really down, he mentioned to me that he had stopped at a store and bought three pairs of brightly colored underwear to wear to his radiation treatments. He said he had decided that since he needed to undress in front of all those female strangers every day, he thought that they might as well be embarrassed, too. After laughing about his silly idea, I decided to take it a step further.

Many of our friends and relatives had been asking if they could help in any way. I decided to take them up on their offers. I wrote a letter explaining the situation and asked them to send something colorful, naughty or nice, appropriate or inappropriate, with a 34-inch waist ASAP. I mailed this letter to about 30 people.

Within a week, manila envelopes with silly boxer shorts started arriving daily. Dick received Halloween underwear, hot pepper sauce underwear, red satin underwear, dancing pigs underwear, Statue of Liberty underwearyou name it, he got it!

Every day for weeks, we rushed out to check the mail and loved opening the packages, all of which came with notes wishing us well. They brought us the support we needed, some really unusual shorts, and many much-needed laughs.

Therese Foy Kimberly

Wife of prostate cancer survivor

Missouri