Together since high school, more than half of Rob and Barb Wiebe's life as a couple has been coloured by the specter of cancer.
This December, they celebrated their 25th anniversary, one month after Rob learned a brain tumour had resurfaced for the fourth time.
By late January he was in a Vancouver hospital bed recovering from a third brain surgery. This time, mercifully, has been a better recovery. The last time, in 2005, he had a stroke.
Rob takes his recovery and the recurrences in stride, an approach evident from the beginning, when he learned of his first tumour 15 years ago.
"I said okay. 'I have things to do and and places to be and people to see so let's get it out,'" said Rob, 46, who most recently recovered from esophageal cancer in 2012.
"That's how I work. I'm a firefighter. It's there or it isn't," said Rob ahead of an early March test which will tell if the surgery has been a success.
But for Barb it's a little more difficult.
"That's the difference between him being the patient and me being the caregiver. He doesn't remember certain things," she said. "He doesn't remember having a stroke. He doesn't remember big blocks of time.
"I remember it all."
Each day Rob is getting stronger, she said but it took coming home for her to truly relax.
"It finally felt like I could breathe again."
That stress has been compounded by financial burden while they wait on a WorkSafeBC claim, said Barb, who will return to work as a secretary for the school district after the spring break during the Canada Winter Games.
Rob, a longtime firefighter, doesn't know when he'll return to the firehall.
"We shouldn't have to be stressed and anxious for something that should automatically covered from the diagnosis," said Barb, adding although his latest cancer was covered, they didn't find out until six months after. "This time, we don't know if it will be covered or not."
On Tuesday, the pair found themselves holding a little bag stuffed with more than $12,000 in donations after a community benefit in their honour.
"It's a shock," said Barb, choking on words of gratitude for Prince George Secondary School students and teacher Jodie Baker who organized the Jan. 23 event.
"Honestly when you have someone, a community that can rally behind you and help you, it's incredible."
More than $2,600 came from the Prince George firefighters, a community Barb said has been so supportive. The best part was a gift from the silent auction by a former neighbour: a bird house built by a firefighter's father in the likeness of his second home.
"It's a gorgeous scale model of (Fire) Hall #1. It's got the ladders, it's got windows," Rob said. "It is that detailed."
"It's right down to the basketball hoop," added Barb.
The money will help, but both point to Rob's humour as key to their journey.
"It's huge. That's how I live because for me, if I was serious all the time, I'd crack," he said.
One example is a Barb a family nickname for Rob - unicorn - for a distinctive bump on his forehead formed after surgeries and years of picking at the scab that formed.
The surgeon smoothed it out, meaning colleagues can't call him "lumpy" or the "albino rhino" anymore.
"Humour has always been huge in his recovery," said Barb, recalling the time when he was in Vancouver for radiation treatment.
"They did crazy things at the lodge, like they had days where they held up their cancer numbers and pretended they were convicts."
For Barb, a family highlight was their son Scott's speech at PGSS last year.
"He just talked about how cancer is a word in our family that's been used a lot and how he's inspired and motivated by his dad and how as a community we can fight cancer and support means everything."
