Comment on this story</tle><path d="M14 14V2H2v9.47h8.18L12.43 13ZM3 10.52V3h10v9.23l-2.5-1.66Z"></path></svg></button><span aria-hidn="te" class="wpds-c-fBEbFG">Comment</span><span class="wpds-c-fOvfhP wpds-c-fOvfhP-kshkDy-isCommentType-te none" aria-hidn="te"><span class="ment-unt font-xxxxs sc-ral-unt"><span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="teaser-ntent grid-center"><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">When I thk back to g of age as a queer man, I most remember the lack of “possibily mols.”<b> </b>I had no ia what my life uld look like.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">I had never seen — real life or media — posive reflectns of what meant to grow old as a member of the LGBT+ muny. Growg up the shadow of a generatn of gay men who were lost to the AIDS epimic, I longed for somethg that said: <i>You n grow old. Life will be okay.</i></p></div></div><div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">The challenge of generatnal isolatn is mon today’s queer youth. Young queer people whout posive role mols are at much higher risk for <a href=" target=_blank>“psychologil distrs”</a> their adolcence and prsn adulthood.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">When <a href=" target=_blank>the Trevor Project</a>, a nonprof that provis rmatn and crisis support to LGBTQ youth, asked young people what brgs them joy, rponnts nsistently poted toward exampl of the future. They ced thgs such as, “Happy LGBT Elrs,” “Queer role mols” and “Learng I’m not alone and that there are more people like me” as sourc of hope.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">This exchange of hope go both ways: Many olr queer adults enjoy sharg their stori wh younger people.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“When I talk to olr people, they often feel fotten, visible,” says Michael Adams, chief executive of SAGE, the untry’s largt LGBTQ+ agg anizatn. “A large part of that is bee they often have no nnectns to young people. They have no sense that younger generatns re about what they have to say and what they’ve done.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">A wi array of <a href=">rearch</a> suggts that fdg ways to transfer wisdom om generatn to generatn is val to improvg the overall health of the LGBTQ muny. This summer, I vised wh five queer senrs across New York Cy to hear their stori.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Here’s what they had to say.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body grid-tablet-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><h3 data-qa="article-hear" class=" pb-sm pt-md" id="HAKOILVAKZHEZJWWIZ2SFT44LY"><div>Bernie Brandáll, 86</div></h3></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Brandáll beams wh pri as he shows me a photo om his early days as a travelg performer, taken sometime the 1950s.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“I ed to be geo,” he says, lghg. “Now I look the mirror, I look at my wrkl, my sk saggg, and I don’t md . Do you want to know why I don’t md ? Bee I have lived <i>a life</i>. I n settle to this age knowg I didn’t miss a thg.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><blockquote data-ttid="quote" class="wpds-c-BNTaj wpds-c-BNTaj-fDUVQq-showBorr-te wpds-c-BNTaj-iPJLV-css article-quote relative borr-box font-light black font--headle mr-lg-mod-ns"><div data-qa="article-quote" class="wpds-c-PJLV">“We are a strong people. But you have to remember that beg strong is a choice.”</div><ce class="wpds-c-epTHjI">— Bernie Brandáll, 86</ce></blockquote><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Brandáll immigrated om Cuba to Miami wh this fay at age 10. He wanted to be a dancer, but faced phback om fay — particularly his olr brothers, who ridiculed his “feme tennci,” a remnant of the homophobia rampant both the cultur of Cuba and Miami at the time.</p><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">At 17, he moved to New York Cy to fd work as a performer, quickly snaggg a job dancg a nightclub/baret show, but the dream didn’t last long — after two weeks of not beg paid, the proprietor of the show “disappeared,” leavg him alone, broke and aimls.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">He eventually found a day job as an elevator operator and tried<b> </b>performg<b> </b>aga, but this time wh a twist — stead of beg a dancer, he would make his mark as a magician and female impersonator. A prolific scrapbooker, he tak me through s worth of photos om his act. Lookg back on imag om one of his last shows, he says, gently: “I was a pretty woman.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">This work took him across the untry and the world — om Las Vegas to R Janeiro to Paris — and he rells the long list of iends and lovers who stilled <b> </b>him a ep sense of ntentment. “I had to be strong to build the life I wanted to live. But I’m so glad I had that strength, bee I n be happy now. I did everythg on this earth that I wanted to do.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>His advice for the next generatn:</b> “We are a strong people. But you have to remember that beg strong is a choice.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><h3 data-qa="article-hear" class=" pb-sm pt-md" id="7XLLBQ4NJJBOVM2QSQWMKMUCLI"><div>Guy Lawrence, 70</div></h3></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Lawrence feels that his whole life has been one big learng experience. “My youth was like the hippie days,” he says. “We didn’t have to thk of the thgs that me on later, like you guys.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><blockquote data-ttid="quote" class="wpds-c-BNTaj wpds-c-BNTaj-fDUVQq-showBorr-te wpds-c-BNTaj-iPJLV-css article-quote relative borr-box font-light black font--headle mr-lg-mod-ns"><div data-qa="article-quote" class="wpds-c-PJLV">“Everythg is changg day by day. Never be aaid to ask a qutn.”</div><ce class="wpds-c-epTHjI">— Guy Lawrence, 70</ce></blockquote><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“The whole world is different now,” he says wh a sweepg gture. “You didn’t have to worry about HIV, you didn’t have to worry about terrorism, you had <i>spac</i> where you uld go and meet other gay people — even if they were <a href=">owned by the mafia</a>. But we had them! And I feel like I spent every day disverg new thgs.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">He enjoys speakg to young people the LGBT muny, bee he’s aaid that they are losg a sense of nnectn to the olr people who ma their current eedom possible.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><div id="gift-share-le" data-ttid="gift-share-le" class="PJLV PJLV-ilotWTr-css hi-for-prt"><button aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-expand="false" aria-ntrols="gift-share-drawer" role="button" tabx="0" aria-label="Share this article" id="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-le" data-ttid="gift-share-drawer-ntrol-le" class="wpds-c-PJLV wpds-c-gsmDXe wpds-c-gsmDXe-goNocI-placement-Inle foc-highlight"><div data-ttid="gift-share-terstial-trigger" class="wpds-c-kPqOkS wpds-c-kPqOkS-jtSXsT-hasSubsText-false"><span class="wpds-c-hBJqc"><span class="wpds-c-dzSncg">Share this article</span></span><span class="wpds-c-eCvK"><span class="wpds-c-enedHQ wpds-c-enedHQ-cCdK-isShown-false">Share</span><svg xmlns=" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 16 16" aria-hidn="te" focable="false" role="img" class="wpds-c-fBqPWp wpds-c-fDHGth"><path fill="currentColor" d="M8 .6v3.8h.1c-4.4 0-7.3 4.5-6.9 8.8.1.8.2 1.2.2 1.2l.2 1 .4-1.3c.8-2 2-4 6.2-3.9H8v4l7-6.9L8 .6Zm1 11.3V9.3h-.9c-3 0-4.8.5-6.2 2.9.5-3.3 2.7-6.8 6.2-6.8H9V3l4.5 4.4L9 11.9Z"></path></svg></span></div></button></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Rellg, for example, the btersweet feelgs he experienc each year durg Pri, he says, “I always tell young people: ‘Learn your history! And ntue to create a new history so no one else n dictate what you n and nnot do.’ ”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>His advice for lifelong learng: </b>“Everythg is changg day by day. Never be aaid to ask a qutn.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body grid-tablet-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><h3 data-qa="article-hear" class=" pb-sm pt-md" id="3EC2VVWD35HFRI5WNKUUAOICDA"><div>Barbara Adams, 78</div></h3></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Adams learned to shoot a gun as a 4-year-old Jacksonville, Fla. “Even then, I never wanted anyone to thk of me as small,” she reunts, as we listened to smooth jazz her home. “I always wanted to be a woman who took re of herself.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Growg up poor and around women who suffered om lonels, low-self worth and nstant workplace sexual harassment, she knew that she had to pe. In her teen years, she saved all of her extra money hop of leavg. She stashed<b> </b>s and ocsnal dollar bills a Chock Full o’ Nuts ffee ntaer that she kept hidn.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">She arrived New York Cy 1969 wh $600, five new articl of clothg and a yellow steamer tnk. “I’m always so amazed that I did that,” she says. “I’d never seen anythg other than the neighborhood where I grew up. But I knew I wanted to do somethg other than what my fay was dog.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><blockquote data-ttid="quote" class="wpds-c-BNTaj wpds-c-BNTaj-fDUVQq-showBorr-te wpds-c-BNTaj-iPJLV-css article-quote relative borr-box font-light black font--headle mr-lg-mod-ns"><div data-qa="article-quote" class="wpds-c-PJLV">You get to create a life for yourself.</div><ce class="wpds-c-epTHjI">— Barbara Adams, 78</ce></blockquote><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">So, steamer tnk tow, and no real plan, she asked strangers to help gui her to Harlem, where she eventually found a place to stay — a ty room a ls-than-savory boardghoe near Central Park. “When you opened the wdow, there was a brick wall there — jt like the movi,” she remembers, fondly.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">The followg s were filled wh the normal challeng — and triumphs — of adulthood: Buyg her -op, gettg her heart broken, fdg a stable job, makg and losg iends.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“It’s hard for me to look back and remember any low moments bee I always did my bt to make everythg fun,” she says. “I’m jt so glad I wasn’t aaid to venture out to fd my life, bee I would’ve missed out on everythg.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Her advice for adulthood: </b>“You get to create a life for yourself.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div data-qa="article-image" class="hi-for-prt"><div style="m-height:358px"></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><h3 data-qa="article-hear" class=" pb-sm pt-md" id="ZV3ZH6S3VJB3DPYTQ5AJCKRQDQ"><div>Vernon and Robert Waldron, both 83</div></h3></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">When I asked Robert and Vernon to share their most important lsons about love, their memori led to the beach Aba.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Durg the ‘80s, the very early stag of their urtship, Robert was diagnosed wh HIV. Leavg the doctor’s office a haze, he cid to put on a strong face and immediately went home and rmed Vernon. They were the midst of preparg for their first trip together — but how uld he travel like this? He felt that his life was fallg apart and didn’t know what to do.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Unable to ncel plans or get refunds, they cid to go on their trip anyway. As soon as he set foot on the beach, Robert rells, he began to sob unntrollably as his md filled wh qutns. <i>How am I gog to do this? How am I gog to tell my sister? How am I gog to tell my fay? Am I gog to survive this?</i></p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“I was stg on the grounds of the most betiful rort hotel,” Robert rells. “And there were the most betiful birds.” Fdg one of his first moments of sereny sce his diagnosis, he poured his heart out to Vernon — hont, for the first time, about the pths of his fears — and they cried, together.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb dn db-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-sktop"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-none pt-lg pb-lg" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"><div>Advertisement</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-full-bleed" data-qa="article-body"><div class="cb db dn-ns" data-qa="article-body-ad" data-ttid="article-body-ad-mobile"><div aria-hidn="te" class="hi-for-prt relative flex jtify-center ntent-box ems-center b bh mb-md mt-sm pt-sm pb-sm" style="m-height:250px;borr-top-lor:;borr-bottom-lor:"><div class="center absolute w-100 borr-box" style="top:"><div class="dib gray-dark pl-xs pr-xs font-sans-serif light font-xxxxs lh-md" style="--primary-borr-lor:"></div></div><div data-ttid="placeholr-box" class="w-100 h-100 absolute flex flex-lumn jtify-center borr-box bg-offwhe" style="width:300px;height:250px"><div class="flex flex-lumn jtify-center font-sans-serif center font-xxs light gray-dark lh-md"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Returng to Ameri, Robert felt able to “face realy.” He told his fay and iends, began treatment and started his path to a healthy life.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">But four years later, he was diagnosed wh lon ncer — and then, later, prostate ncer.</p></div><div class="article-body grid-body grid-center" data-qa="article-body"><blockquote data-ttid="quote" class="wpds-c-BNTaj wpds-c-BNTaj-fDUVQq-showBorr-te wpds-c-BNTaj-iPJLV-css article-quote relative borr-box font-light black font--headle mr-lg-mod-ns"><div data-qa="article-quote" class="wpds-c-PJLV">“I love him. And that’s when I learned that love, at the end of the day, is jt always beg there.”</div><ce class="wpds-c-epTHjI">— Vernon and Robert Waldron, 83</ce></blockquote><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">Vernon, who don’t speak much, fally pip up when he rells Robert’s hospalizatn durg his first ncer treatment. For weeks on end, he would stay the hospal for the duratn of visg hours — he even bathed Robert twice a day. Doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. And if he survived, he would also have to learn to walk aga.</p><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“Vernon had never seen me like this before,” Robert says, exprsg his guilt. “I told him to go out, see his iends, and try to enjoy himself.”</p><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null">“And I said no,” Vernon tells me, haltgly. “Bee there was nowhere else I wanted to be but wh him.”</p><p data-ttid="drop-p-letter" data-el="text" class="wpds-c-cYdRxM wpds-c-cYdRxM-iPJLV-css overriStyl font-py" dir="null"><b>Their advice for relatnships: </b>“Love, at the end of the day, is jt always beg there.”</p></div><div class="article-body grid-center grid-body" data-qa="article-body"><p><span class="wpds-c-gnhuPA wpds-c-gnhuPA-hqeSyH-variant-terstial wpds-c-gnhuPA-iPJLV-css hi-for-prt"><a data-qa="terstial-lk" href=">Sign up for the 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