DAPHNE, Ala. — A nearly 70-year-old man who three years ago was given three months to live doesn’t seem sick these days — to say the least. Skydiving was his latest activity and he’s taken up a love for music by singing in the church choir.

Ed Givhan found inspiration in “The Bucket List,” a 2007 film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, where men make a wish list and put the items in a bucket; they don’t let age or infirmity stop them. And it seems, neither will Givhan.

He went skydiving on Memorial Day, recently fished at his son’s 60-acre lake in Green County and rejoined Eastern Shore Baptist Church’s choir after a 15-year break.

He said his bucket list was the perfect way for him to cope with terminal illness.

“It organized my thoughts,” he said. “I never thought that I could sky dive.

“When I jumped out of that air plane at 14,000 feet, I had no fear.”

Actually, his bucket list included a number of things he hadn’t considered having the ability to do — before the diagnosis.

“I don’t think I ever thought these things were possible,” he said.

“I put things off; things I wish I’d done sooner.”

Givhan had noticed a lump on his head three years ago that doctors said was a tumor that pushed through his skull; he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, which spread to his brain and spine.

He was shocked and frightened when diagnosed, he said.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “It’s not something that gets cured.”

“They took a chunk of my skull and put in a chunk of titanium,” he said.

He had radiation and chemotherapy, and now takes the drug Tarceva, which helps prolong lung-cancer patients’ lives.

“All that stuff has worked miraculously on me,” he said. “All but one treatment was done right here in Mobile.”

Other factors were at play in his remission, Joanne, his wife of 47 years, said.

“Everyday he gets up is a good day,” she said. “We had a prayer chain in our Sunday school and all over the country.

“We just had good prayer warriors.”

“I don’t know how people who don’t believe in the Lord get through things like this,” she said.

Ed said he has friends in south Florida, Birmingham and a sister in Utah who prayed for him.

Since he’s still alive and well, he plans to add other things to his bucket list, such as para-sailing and riding in high-powered boats and jets.

Givhan’s zest for life has touched friends’ lives.

Tracy Bishop, a fellow member of Eastern Shore Baptist Church choir, is one such person.

“Ed's story is very inspirational to me,” she said in an e-mail. “I had always wondered what I would do if put in his situation.

“I do know that I would strive to follow in his footsteps.”

“He has a strong faith in God and lives each day as if it were his last,” she said. “He doesn't worry about what might happen tomorrow, he just lives for today.”

He exemplifies the way Bishop would like to live her life, she said.

“His attitude about his illness is always upbeat,” she said. “I’m sure he dwells on it from time to time, but you would never know that he had such a serious illness if you were to meet him because he does not let that hinder one thing he does. Ed’s positive outlook on life and his faith in Jesus Christ should be an inspiration to us all.”

Givhan said he was able to stay strong by developing a motto.

“I just lived one day at time,” he said.

With a few more items in the bucket, he said he can look forward to more fun.

“If I do all that and I’m still around, I’ll start all over again,” he said.

Do you know of someone who’s an inspiration? Tell the Daphne Bulletin. Call 626-9300, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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