Jon Minion
Co-Founder
A snapshot of Jon at the dawn of his adulthood gives you a glimpse of why his wife, Rachel, was attracted to him in the first place. Smart, fun, adventurous, yet level-headed and responsible. Their spirits spoke to each other. He was yin to her yang, and a beautiful love story began. A wedding, a new life together, new careers. Life was filled with promise.
One of Jon’s promises was that he would always be the rock on which Rachel could stand. “I still feel a deep sense of regret when I think of her being alone when she got the diagnosis.” It was supposed to be a routine follow-up appointment from an unrelated procedure. They’d been assured there was no need for someone to be with her. Knowing she was confident and capable, he’d gone to work expecting it to be another typical day. He’d taken his motorcycle to work that day. When she tried to reach him, he was on the way home and unable to hear the phone. “When I got home, I saw dozens of text messages. Scrolling through them, my heart stopped when I saw ‘I have cancer.’ By that time her phone had gone dead, so all I could do was wait. I couldn’t call her. I couldn’t go out and look for her. I’d never find her in Chicago traffic. I just had to stay there and wait.”
The news turned their lives upside down. Suddenly, every small plan, every simple joy, felt irrelevant. “I wanted to be her rock, fix everything, but I felt helpless. Watching her try to maintain her trademark strength only made my heart ache more.
“That day, I realized how fragile normalcy is. In a blink, everything changes, and you’re left grappling with a new reality you never saw coming. For me, that reality was being the husband of a cancer warrior. It meant showing up in ways I’d never imagined, finding strength I didn’t know I had, and stepping into a role where “routine” no longer existed.”
Asked what kind of advice he’d share with other caregivers, he offers this. Delegate mundane tasks whenever you can to make life less taxing. So much is out of your control. You and your cancer warrior long to feel some sense of normalcy, for a day or even an hour. So, keep your date nights. You might not be able to go out, but you can have a special night at home. Make time to do things that will help you both. Talk to each other. “I believe it helped Rachel to know I was struggling, too. Trying to help me distracted her from what she was dealing with.”
Rachel’s diagnosis changed everything, but one thing remained constant. “She is my world. No matter how this journey unfolds, I’ll be right here, walking beside her.” After ten years with no evidence of disease, Jon is still there keeping his promise to be her rock.