Derek Jones State Farm Agent, 1 morton Avenue suite m2, Morton, PA (2026)

10/08/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

A little Thursday Gratitude Post:

Today I am super grateful for my parents. When they visited me after my brain surgery, they came with this amazing jacket. It was super cool of them, and it helps keep me warm in these chilly fall mornings.

When times are tough, and they are tough for me right now, it is imperative to focus my mind on hope and gratitude.

Simple acts of human to human kindness remind me that there is beauty in the world, and that we have a hand in creating it.

While I am still on a long road to cancer remission and recovery, it is up to me to find joy.

A lot of people talk about cancer like it is a “fight” or a “battle.” For me, that is not really how I am perceiving it. I am not necessarily “fighting” the disease.

But the real fight, I believe, is in my mind. Can you find joy in the pain? Gratitude despite the lack of control over one’s health? Hope when you have gone on weeks of feeling stuck?

I write these posts not because I’ve mastered this. In fact, it is 100% the opposite. I am trying to learn how to be a father, a State Farm agent, and a person living with my cancer.

Truth be told, parts of me still have not even fully accepted the reality.

But posting about it, writing about it, and journaling about it is cathartic and helps me reorient my perspective toward hope and gratitude.

Loving life is easy when things are going your way, but loving life when life is kicking you while you’re down, now that’s a fight worth fighting.

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

10/05/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

What do you do when you can’t sleep?

Well, before emergency brain surgery and my stage 4 cancer diagnosis, that was rarely a problem I faced. I had no idea how blessed I’ve been as a strong sleeper for nearly my entire life.

These days, I’m not so lucky. Normally, I would try and read a book, but I am still having issues getting my eyes to focus on reading for any extended period of time.

But as you all know me, I don’t focus on what I can’t do. I focus on what I CAN do.

I’ve found that I can read comics, so that’s what I’ve been doing.

On those early mornings, when I wake up hours before sunrise, I brew a nice cup of dark roast, curl up under a blanket, cuddle with my cat, and pick up a comic book.

Would I rather be sleeping? Sure I would. But this isn’t so bad either.

When it comes to comics, take a guess who my favorite comic book character is?

I hope everyone has a great week, and remember, whatever your fight is, however challenging it may be, you can and will get through it.

As a wiser smarter person once told me, you don't need to win every fight, but you do need to get up and fight them.

09/30/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

As we get ready to cheer on the Phighten’s today to keep their playoff hopes alive, today marks a full 8 weeks since having my brain tumor removed.

8 weeks, a full two months. It has been without a doubt the strangest, craziest, hardest to explain 8 weeks of my life.

I am back to work for a handful of hours a day. I am working until my eyes cannot focus on the computer anymore, meeting with my team, and helping them help customers.

Time has been, as Einstein proved, relative.

Some days feel like years. Some weeks feel like days. Sleep is still hard to get, and pain is constant even though it has gotten much better. I have good days, bad days, and most of the time, a little bit of both.

I am still walking with a cane. I was hopeful that I would be done with the cane by now. The good news is that I do have the physical strength to walk without the cane, but I do not have the balance yet.

The name of the game is gratitude, and practicing it every day. Finding something to be grateful for every day is easy when things are going well, but when things are not going well, that is when it is most imperative.

Today, I am grateful for my team at the office, for showing up when customers need them, for holding down the fort while I work to get back into the business full time.

They have proven to be very resilient, showing up for customers like the superheroes they are.

Hit me up with your gratitude, and whatever phight you are in, keep phighting it!

Go Phils!

09/29/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

In keeping with the theme of finding joy where I can, I still can’t do too much.

I'm still recovering from brain surgery, and immunotherapy has been very hard.

However, I started working on building lego sets.

This past Saturday, my wife was out getting a much needed and much deserved massage. While my two-year-old daughter, Alice, napped, my son, Arthur, and I put this lego set together.

He was great. He listened well, followed the instructions, and when my wife came back, he couldn’t wait to show it to her.

Yes, having stage 4 cancer sucks. It has completely changed just about every facet of my life.

But I can still carve out some time to find something to do with my son.

As September winds down and we get closer to the end of 2026, tell me, what’s a way you are finding joy?

Let me know in the comments if you get a chance, and remember, whatever your challenges are, you can and will get through it.

09/25/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

One of my biggest focuses right now is my physical therapy (PT) post brain surgery. It has been almost 8 weeks since my neurosurgeon removed a tumor just a bit larger than a golf ball from the right side of my head.

They told me I would be most confined to a bed for 8 weeks. At first, I could not walk more than a few feet. Standing up for more than 10 minutes was really hard.

My first week out of the hospital, I started my PT. When you are in that rough physical shape, the therapist comes to your home.

I had two goals. First, get off the cane. Second, be strong enough to pick up my kids.

We started very small, with basic lower body mobility and daily walks. After a few weeks, we added some upper body strength, then some light cardio.

Once I could walk around the house by myself, my therapist gave me instructions on how to build on my progress and told me I was OK to do it on my own.

I went to work. 5 days a week, 5am wake up, and 45 minutes of PT every morning.

Progress has been slow. Often times it has been frustrating, and there were even moments when I felt defeated, even depressed.

But I kept at it.

I am close to my first goal. I now have the strength to walk on the cane, but I still do not have the balance yet.

Two weeks ago, I picked up my youngest, my daughter Alice for the first time.

Last night, as I put my oldest, Arthur, to sleep, he said to me, “Daddy, I really miss you picking me up.” This morning, I picked up my son for the first time in nearly 8 weeks. When I pick him up, he calls them “up hugs.”

As I picked him up, he gave me his up hug and he said, “Daddy, you got me!”

I started to cry.

Progress is not a straight line. It is a dogfight where you have to accept where you are while working toward the goal you want. I thought I would be rid of the cane by now, but I am not. However, I can pick up my kids.

No matter what fight you are in, or what challenge you are facing, do not give up. Work on it every day and you will get stronger.

Control what you can, and surrender to what you cannot.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

09/21/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

Seven weeks since my left arm went, well, wrong. Where I felt the arm, where I saw the arm, it was not where the arm actually was. Once my mind caught on and I tried to move my left arm, it would not do what I wanted it to do.

I went to the hospital with my wife to learn that I had a brain tumor causing the right side of my brain to swell. The swollen brain interrupted how my brain communicated with the left side of my body. I would need brain surgery to remove the tumor as soon as possible.

The hospital I was at did not have a neurosurgeon on staff, so I waited while they transferred me to another hospital.

There I waited in the ER for 11 hours. My wife went home to take care of the kids, and I sat there, read a book, and watched the minutes tick by.

I was transferred to Paoli Hospital and checked into the ICU. There, I met the attending physician, who asked me what the ER doctor had told me. I said I had a brain tumor.

I will never forget this. The ICU doctor said that was not all. He asked me if I was a spiritual person. When a doctor asks you that before they tell you everything, you know it is bad.

That is when he told me there was cancer in my brain, lungs, liver, lymph nodes, and adrenal glands. He sat with me for a while, and we talked. Every day he came back and checked on me, even on days when he was not assigned to the ICU, just to see how I was feeling, whether I needed anything, and to catch up.

The next day, my brain tumor was removed, and it was discovered that I had 23 additional brain tumors too small to be operated on.

Seven weeks of pain, little to no sleep, physical therapy, and simply trying to hold on. One brain surgery, five days of radiation therapy to treat the other 23 brain tumors, and tomorrow I have my third round of immunotherapy.

After surgery, I could barely stand. Every day my head hurts, my eyes hurt, and I can barely sleep, but my strength returns, little by little.

I have made it seven weeks.

I can make it.

Make no mistake, my life is a waking nightmare.

But I will make it.

09/17/2026

Derek here. The Insurance Dad!

It’s been 6 weeks since I had a brain tumor just larger than the size of a golf ball surgically removed, while receiving my Stage 4 cancer diagnosis.

To say that I’m in the hardest and most challenging phase of my life would be the understatement of all understatements.

I still have a business that needs to be run. I have a 5 year old son and a 2 year old daughter who need a functional father, a wife who needs a husband, and a home that needs to be maintained.

Each and every day is a struggle.

Here are a few things I’ve learned in the last 6 weeks:

You have to be honest with yourself. You can’t BS your way through cancer. There’s no way to rush. There are no shortcuts. It’s literally one minute at a time.

You have to accept the limitations the disease puts on you while finding ways to push yourself. The name of the game is balance. I started out barely able to stand, and I still can’t read for more than 30 minutes at a time. I am where I am, not where I want to be.

Pain is an occurrence. One that you must accept. The more you fight the pain, the more pain you feel.

The only thing truly in my control right now is my mind. Controlling it is of paramount importance, which is why I’m in therapy with a professional who helps people dealing with chronic disease.

Different doesn’t mean worse, even if it means diminished.

Other people’s opinions only impact you if you allow it.

Joy can be found everywhere, no matter how bad you feel, but it must be sought. Joy doesn’t find you. You find it.

Faith is essential to surviving the hard times.

Stay hopeful and grateful, my friends.

09/14/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

My new normal post cancer means there will be good days, OK days, and bad days. This past weekend, there were some darn good days.

The one thing I have unequivocally learned is not to take the little things for granted. Spending my Sunday with my family, watching our favorite (and best) football team win, was great. Go Birds!

A nice slice of pizza and a long walk with the family to admire how my neighborhood shows up and shows out for Halloween were major wins. I was able to walk a full mile for the first time in over 6 weeks.

Knowing my limitations between pushing myself and resting is the name of the game. Psychologically, I need to push myself. My team, my customers, and most importantly my family need me to be more mobile and more capable.

But it's possible I can push myself too far, which sets me back. There is no way to rush the process, and there are things that will simply be different for me now, and maybe even different for forever.

I need to listen to my body, stick to my routine, and have a football mindset, move the "ball" inch by inch.

That’s physical therapy 5 days a week. Daily walks. Journaling often. Resting when I need it. And lastly, finding ways to play with my kids in the ways I can, as often as I can.

My current goal is to get off the cane. While I am not there yet, I am getting close.

None of this would be possible without the love, care and fierce dedication of my wife. People say to me that I'm an inspiration, that I'm strong. Truthfully, she is the inspiration, she is the strong one, she's the glue making this thing called my family and my cancer treatment work.

No matter what, stay hopeful and grateful, my friends, especially on the bad days.

09/14/2026

Derek here, the Insurance Dad!

My new normal post cancer means there will be good days, OK days, and bad days. This past weekend, there were certainly some darn good days.

The one thing I have unequivocally learned is not to take the little things for granted. Spending my Sunday with my family, watching our favorite (and best) football team win, was great.

Enjoying a nice slice of pizza and a long walk with the family to admire how my neighborhood shows up and shows out for Halloween were major wins.

I was able to walk a full mile for the first time in since brain surgery!!

Knowing my limitations between pushing myself and resting is the name of the game. Psychologically, I need to push myself. My team, my customers, and most importantly my family need me to be more mobile and more capable.

But I can push myself too far, which sets me back. There is no way to rush the process, and there are things that will simply be different for me now, and maybe even different for forever.

I need to listen to my body, stick to my routine, and have a football mindset:

Move the "ball" inch by inch.

That means physical therapy 5 days a week. Daily walks. Journaling often. Resting when I need it. And lastly, finding ways to play with my kids in the ways I can, as often as I can.

My current goal is to get off the cane. While I am not there yet, I am getting close.

No matter what, stay hopeful and grateful, my friends, in particular on the bad days!

Derek Jones State Farm Agent

10/08/2026

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