ONE DAY AT A TIME –
Nov. 3, 2023 -In March 2020, after the pandemic began, the couple bought a house in the nearby village of Palmetto Bay. “It was a big commitment — I wasn’t sure about getting married again,” Mr. de Amezola said. “But she makes me a better person. Everything I do with her is an improvement.”
That September, Ms. Hartman developed a cough that wouldn’t go away and had trouble swallowing. She saw a specialist in December and had an endoscopy.
“When I woke up, the doctor was sitting in my room,” she recalled. “She said, ‘There’s a mass. It’s big. We have to wait for pathology to confirm, but I’m pretty sure it’s cancer.’”
Ms. Hartman cried in the car as she told the news to Mr. de Amezola. “If someone was getting cancer it would be me,” said Mr. de Amezola, a pack-a-day smoker. (Ms. Hartman, a nonsmoker, ran marathons.)
