Episode 419 - Update - The Journey of Resilience: John Bjorlie's Die Happy Tour

Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 419 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for telling a friend today.There's no cold open. There's no guest from the real estate industry. Instead, I want to talk about John Bjorlie and his Die Happy Tour.As most of you know, late in 2023, John decided to embark on the Die Happy Tour. On this tour, he was able to visit many family and friends, attend his own wake in Rome, New York, and have lots of other adventures along the way.But as John's condition progresses, the die Happy tour is entering the next phase. John's no longer traveling. John is no longer receiving any treatment to try to curtail the cancer.Instead, John is under hospice care, where their primary concern is keeping John comfortable as the inevitable draws closer.I've had many conversations with John in the last few months, and my favorite is when John described that his oncologist at his last meeting, I think in April, basically said, john, I'm firing myself. I'm no longer going to be working for you. There's nothing else I can do. Instead, the hospice team is going to take over.This is the same oncologist that John had worked with since 2020 when he first discovered the cancer. John has told me many times how amazed this doctor was with John's condition and the way he was able to continue the tour.In fact, telling John, keep booking travel because it's really working for you. But obviously at this point, that's no longer the case. I've asked John what are the things they tell you to watch for as you continue down this path?And he said there were three things, very straightforward things. One would be fatigue. Second would be loss of appetite, and third would be increased pain.Now, the pain can be taken care of, and we know John's got some fairly good drugs to help him with that. As far as appetite goes, he's definitely lost a little bit of weight, but he still has an appetite. He's still eating meals.In fact, I'll share more about that in a second. And fatigue has definitely hit him in a different way.There are times and certain days where he really just wants to sleep, but there are other days where he has a lot more energy, he's up and about.And to show you how that works, we'll talk about what Paul, his son and I, and Vernon, another good friend of John's, are doing together, kind of keep John engaged with life. So I mentioned the next phase. I like to call the next Phase the golf portion of the die happy Tour. It is underway in earnest.I've made three trips out to Phoenix, Paul as well, and we've met Vernon there and taken John out onto the golf course at Aguilar, the city course down in lavine, right against South Mountain, for three rounds of golf over the last couple of months.John and I had the promise to take care of each other this way for a long time, that whatever happened, one of us would always take the other one out on the golf course.Even it meant getting a wheelchair and doing whatever we had to do to get them into the golf cart so they could have another spin around the golf course. On the last trip out in early May, John's friend Susan joined us for dinner.I was craving West Coast Mexican food, so we hit up a restaurant called Valle Luna in North Phoenix with Paul, myself, Susan and John, and we had a blast, a great time. We were probably a little bit too loud, but we had a lot of fun. And the next day we were able to, you get that third round of golf in with John.Now, he's not playing, per se, but he does grab the driver once or twice around and gives it a whack. And generally on every putting green, this is John's favorite thing to do.He'll find the person in the worst situation farthest away from the pin on the green, and he will roll a putt for them from their spot so they get a little bit of advantage over the other two who hit the ball closer. It's a lot of fun. John has a blast doing it, and, you know, you could just see him light up as we get on the golf course because it's.It's really one of his happy places. And it's.As most of you know, John and I walked the fairways of Phoenix for 17 years and just can't think of a better way to have fun with John and take care of John. Trip number four is planned on Father's Day, June 15th, Paul and I will meet with Vernon and John again.This time we're going to play TPC Scottsdale, the same golf course that hosts the Waste Management Open. John and I have played that course before. So has Paul, Vernon as well.But we all can't wait to get back out there, get on that course, get on the back nine, see what we could do on 16 and 17 and even 15, the par five. We're going to have a blast. I just talked to John earlier today. He was super excited about that.So with that, I promise on the next update with John, we will go over in detail how that round went out in Scottsdale. Paul's always desperately trying to beat me, and I'm returning the favor by desperately trying to beat Paul.And John's there busting the chops of both Paul and I as we go along. You don't want to make a mistake in front of John because his wicked sense of humor has not gone anywhere. In fact, it's maybe even better than ever.So thanks for listening, thanks for tuning in, and feel free to share this with anyone else who needs to hear what's happening with John and his Die Happy Tour. It continues on just in a slightly different way. Thanks for listening.