They never sued: Missed cancer diagnosis

When she and Isadore met 50 years ago in the Toronto area, she was only 16. Before the teenaged sweethearts married, she was only 16. But Rosalie Wise Sharp and her husband have been married ever since, proving a long marriage can be a good thing.

Their marriage helped them overcome a tragedy – the loss of one of their four sons, Christopher, at age 17, from misdiagnosed melanoma.

“You don’t really ever get over it. But you put it over there,” she says, motioning to one side. “When you have a husband and other kids, you do what you can to make it easier for them.”

They never sued the doctor, now deceased, who misdiagnosed their son’s cancer. “What good would it have done to sue him? It wasn’t going to help my son or us, so if it wasn’t going to be helpful there wasn’t any point. You just have to accept it. Look, you’re dealt blows. Life does that. People always say cancer patients have so much courage. But what choice do you have? We are here to enjoy our lives.”

Advice: Grieve, and then enjoy your life, zestfully.

Read another of our stories about living zestfully, or Sarah Hampson’s source story in Toronto’s Globe and Mail.