Doug Wallace Interviewing David Borglum on October 30, 2014, the night before David died

Doug: David, can you tell me what your experience has been since you were diagnosed with cancer.
David: Having cancer has profoundly affected my life. At first I was relatively stable. I was feeling signs of hopefulness and also a sense of spiritual awakening, a sense of just being alive more and more to the present moment. As cancer seemed to get worse, my energy level decreased and I felt weakness perhaps due to the medications I have been taking to deal with the pain.

Cancer has also profoundly affected my life in a different way, in the sense of not feeling a lot of exuberant joy that I was originally feeling. Right now the big question is whether my strength will start to return and I don’t know. So anyway I’ve been going through a lot of ups and downs. Obviously I’ve been feeling that all of this has been more a little bit more intense of late, especially over the last week or two. It’s hard to distinguish what is causing what. Laughs. It’s been an exhausting, exhausting time.

I’ve also felt profound gratitude for so much support from so many different people. In particular I’m grateful for help with meals and for people who have made unexpected donations from out of nowhere, which I was not expecting. In some ways I feel I’ve never been so blessed in my life. I’ve been learning a lot about gratitude. One of the realities is that I don’t have the time and energy to send a lot of personal thank you notes that I would like to be sending folks.

Doug: What has it been like for you being supported by a Living/Dying Project volunteer?

David: Doug has been a true blessing on so many different levels, part of which has been having someone to meet with, pray with, meditate with, do yoga with, dealing with balance in a whole, new fresh way. This is been really critical. Doug’s presence in my life brought enrichment on so multiple levels – spiritually, as far as friendship, support in learning more about yoga, also making sure that I have the best of things such as a yoga mat or suspenders. Laughs. Whatever would be needed. Some of those practical gifts have been invaluable. I also feel that when I’m tired my speech is not as clear as it had been an and I regret that. I hope to come back to these questions at a later time.