PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — “I’m excited to say I’m cancer-free at this moment.”
That was November 9, Robert Goodman a teacher at Palm Beach Gardens High School, had beaten colon cancer. He was talking on Facebook live on a beach in Palm Beach County.
“Live each moment to its fullest,” he continued.
He had asked over the summer for extra sick time from fellow teachers because he didn’t have enough paid sick days of his own to get through chemotherapy.
Those teachers, like Dawn McKeitch, came through.
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“I’ve learned to live life to the fullest,” she told us in July.
Now, Goodman hopes they can come through again.
“The artery just closed and stayed closed. The widow maker artery,” he told us Friday in an interview at his home.
Saturday, Goodman suffered a heart attack while celebrating his health with his wife and friends at a production of Kansas in Ft. Lauderdale. It was the first time he had been out of the county since he was cancer free.
“When I’m finally really, really strong and my heart is strong and my body is strong, I’ll be able to give those kids so much and I look forward to that but I can’t do it like this because I might not make it,” he told us.
He has enough sick time to get him through January but his recovery will likely last into summer.
“I feel guilty having to ask again and there are probably other teachers out there who could be asking, and I hope they do,” he said.
He’s hoping for more love from his fellow teachers.
“Enjoy your holiday. Look across the table at your friends and family,” he said on Facebook live this week, when he was still in the hospital. “Tell them you love them. It’s amazing what happens when you do that.”