I talked to my brother to make arrangements for Fathers’ Day and he as an aside mentioned to me: did dad talk to you about his bladder cancer?

That’s a statement that implies a lot, like that my dad had cancer, and that my brother was told and not me.

Me: So, you had bladder cancer?
Dad: Yeah, nothing big.
Me: Sure, but you were peeing blood, and you had bladder cancer.
Dad: Everything worked out after I got the tumor removed.
Me: And none of this stuck you as something you should have told me?
Dad: You were driving, I didn’t want to distract you.
Me: I stopped driving four days ago.
Dad: *shrugs shoulders* I’ll try to remember to tell you next time.

I guess it’s a ringing endorsement for modern medicine that someone’s encounter with bladder cancer can be so dull that it slips under the conversational radar within ones own family.   Also, if this is below the barrier of notification, I hope this means that the little accumulated indignities of age like prostate issues and comb-over techniques also remain perpetually unmentioned.