Frank Trueblood I was born in 1920 on a reservation in Wyoming, of Native American parents. I don’t know of anyone in my family who had cancer.
0-19 years I always hated school and did everything I could to avoid going. Our family was poor, but so was everyone else on the reservation, and somehow we got along. I don’t remember going to the doctor much as a child, though when I broke my arm, my parents took me to the clinic for treatment.	20-39 years I moved back to Wyoming after I was discharged from the army. By then, I decided that I wanted to be a rancher, and I went back to school on the GI bill to get a degree in agriculture. I did the rodeo circuit for a while when I was in college and after, but after a few more broken bones, I gave it up for full time ranching.
40-59 years Life on the ranch was good—I ate well (lots of meat and black coffee) and drank hard with my men. I never married (it was no life for a lady), thought I have two kids who live in the city with their mother. It’s just as well the kids don’t live with me. Way out on the ranch, there’s not much for them to do and there’re no doctors and only a little local school. I sometimes worry that I don’t have a family to take care of me if I get hurt, but there’s really nothing I can do about it. I don’t even have health insurance because I can’t afford it. I guess its okay. I don’t trust doctors anyway. The last time I saw one, he told me I had to quit drinking because I was developing liver problems. I ignored him; I’ve known plenty of men who’ve enjoyed booze all of their lives and still lived to a ripe old age. So what does he know?	60+ years I developed a little abdominal pain after I passed 60, but I treated it with antacids and it always seemed to settle down afterward. One day, thought, when I was 67, I got kicked by a horse and had to go to the hospital. They noticed blood in my stool and insisted that I get test for colon cancer. Sure enough it was there, and before I knew it, they had cut me open and removed it. I went for chemotherapy for a while, but I’m okay now. Even the doc says I’m probably going to make it. The doc also says he can help me stop drinking. I’m lucky to get a second chance, so maybe I’d better try.