Sen. John McCain prepares for future in excerpt from upcoming memoir

PHOENIX — National Public Radio released an audio excerpt from John McCain’s upcoming memoir, “The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations.”

“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here,” McCain read. “Maybe I’ll have another five years. Maybe with the advances in oncology, they’ll find new treatments for my cancer that will extend my life.

“Maybe I’ll be gone before you hear this. My predicament is, well, rather unpredictable.”

The memoir is scheduled to be released on May 22.

McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in July 2017. He has undergone surgery for a brain tumor and another was found a few months later.

On Sunday, Sen. John McCain’s son-in-law, Ben Domenech, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that the six-term Republican senator was “doing well” as he spends time at his Arizona home with family.

The book talks about McCain’s political career, including his presidential runs in 2000 and 2008, and more recent political issues over the last few years.

In the NPR excerpt, McCain said Americans need to embrace the ideals the country was founded on.

“I want to urge Americans for as long as I can to remember that the shared devotion to human rights is our truest heritage and most important loyalty,” he said.

At the end of the clip, he referenced where he would like his burial to take place – the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

“I’d like to go back to our valley and see the creek run after the rain and hear the cottonwoods whisper in the wind. I want to smell the rose-scented breeze and feel sun on my shoulders,” he said. “I want to watch the hawks hunt from the sycamore, and then take my leave bound for a place near my old friend Chuck Larson in the cemetery on the Severn back where it began.”

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