Are you familiar with the story of Stamatis Moraitis? Stamatis was a Greek immigrant living in the United States. In 1976 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and told he had only “6 to 9 months to live”. He was offered aggressive treatment but he refused chemotherapy and medication that was prescribed. Apparently a number of doctors concurred with the diagnosis and agreed that treatment would not save his life. Considering the high cost of health care and funerals in America, he decided to save his money and chose a different kind of therapy.
Stamatis and his wife packed their bags and headed back to the island of his birth, Ikaria, to spend what he thought would be his final months alive. He settled in with his elderly parents in a small house on a vineyard, where he reconnected with his community and re-established friendships. He played games and drank wine and sat in the sunshine. He started going to his old church and felt a renewal of his faith. After six months, he planted a vegetable garden and began tending the vineyard. He made himself useful. And he didn’t die.
Not only did he not die after six months… he was actually feeling better than ever. He enjoyed the love and company of his wife and took a lot of naps. He spent time outdoors enjoying the coastal air. He read books. He followed no schedule and rarely looked at his watch. He laughed with his friends and family. He ate food fresh from the earth and drank wine from the grapes he grew in the vineyard.
At one point, 25 years after his diagnosis, Stamatis went back to the United States to ask his doctors what had happened. How did he recover from terminal lung cancer? He wanted “to see if the doctors could explain it” to him. He wasn’t able to ask that question because all the doctors were dead. Almost 40 years after his doctor-prescribed “expiration date”, Stamatis died peacefully – and not from cancer – in 2013. He was 102 years old.
So, why am I telling you this story? Maybe you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness and given your estimated time. Maybe you love someone with an upcoming “expiration date”. Maybe you can change your beliefs about what is possible. And when those beliefs change, maybe you can find hope. Maybe you can change your habits to include the medicine of love…faith, family and friends. Maybe you can embrace a lifestyle of healthy food, sunshine and useful physical activity. Maybe you can change that diagnosis.
When Stamatis chose to focus on the simple joys of life, his body responded by embracing more of life. Happy feeds the cells of your body. Love nurtures and nourishes. When he began to live as if every day may be his last day, he began to live mindfully in the moment. Stamatis followed his heart. We can all learn from him.