Landmark birthday present for DF who has cancer

[EvenLess07]

My DF is about to turn 70 and I want to do something special for him.

He has mesothelioma and is therefore unfortunately not likely to live for many more years. He's recently had an operation to extend his life expectancy so I hope we'll get some more time together but he is still having to be very careful because of Covid so we aren't able to see much of each other my 18 mo DD barely knows him which is heartbreaking for us all. The last few months since his diagnosis have been very hard. Today is a tough day as I was meant to be going to a family meal with him but can't.

I am making a photo book of pictures throughout his life which I think he'll enjoy and will be something for us to keep in the future. Do any wise MNetters have any other ideas of special birthday gifts? He's not the materialistic type and it's hard to know what to buy him under normal circumstances

My df had a big birthday recently and we got him lots of things relating to holidays we went on when we were younger.
For example 1664 beer, we always had that in France but he never bought it at home. We found some photos of us drinking it in France and printed them out.
Those little boxes of French snack biscuit things shaped like fish and mini loafs, there's a French cafe near us that sells them.
We used to eat Frikandel (Dutch hot dogs) with apple sauce whenever we were in the Netherlands, we managed to track down some actual Dutch frikandel and gave him a tin of those with apple sauce.
Stupid things, but they were funny and had good memories. He's not very materialistic either so everything was eaten up or used up in the end.

@EvenLess07 i am sorry to ask…not sure if you even check mumsnet…how is your DF?

my df has been diagnosed last November and i am so scared and dont know what to expect

@AnxietyLevelMax thank you for asking, and I'm sorry to hear about your DF 💐 it's a truly devastating diagnosis.

DF is still with us, and I'm counting myself lucky that he will in all likelihood spend another birthday with us and that I'll once again have the dilemma of what to get him. We nearly lost him to sepsis earlier this year. He's doing ok at the moment, or as ok as you can be when you have terminal cancer and several other ailments.

its reassuring he is still ok. Glad to hear that.
dont know what else to say. Its messed up. Not fair. I have a toddler i need to be strong for and cannot be a mess, i feel totally numb. I used
to think of future, plan this or that, now i just cant knowing my dad wont be in the picture. I dont know how my mom will cope. Just want to switch all the feelings and thinking off

For my mum, my siblings and I sent thoughts/memories and typed them up into a 60 Things We Love About You list, with a little heart in between each one. Range of sweet, silly and funny things on the list and some repeats. My dh arranged it all nicely with the graphics and we got it printed and framed. My mum absolutely loves it. Something like this pic.

Such a sweet idea. Very thoughtful!

Oh I’m stupid. I only just realised this is an old thread. Glad to hear he’s holding up strong and I hope you and your family are coping ok. X