Weird things go fast and slow all at once
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:34 pm
This is a photo of me talking with my oldest nephew Burt. Here he has a wife and two great teenagers. A year ago around Christmas he had His dream job and was rising in the ranks rapidly as the head of a tech support team. He loved his job.
Suddenly he required frequent bathroom trips. Soon it interfered with his job. In June it made him leave his job. He was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. His company left his position open. For months he tried to beat it and then it started getting better. He went back to work and it got worse. Then he fell and broke his hand. Within weeks he was diagnosed with ALS. Two terminal diseases at once.
This is when I really got to know him. I never knew the goodness that was inside of him and how people looked up to him.
We had his funeral today in Minnesota. I couldn't be there due to health and distance, but everyone understood. If you're bored, go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/burtlarson and read the journal or guestbook. You might be inspired.
He never lost the will to survive and fought until the end even though he knew the outcome. He refused a tracheotomy and told the family to withhold life sustaining food and water.
He communicated through a extra sense with his mother through his gazing eyes and blinking signals. I'll miss him an awful lot. It only took a year but it was such an agonizing slow one in one sense and it went by in a heartbeat in another sense.
Suddenly he required frequent bathroom trips. Soon it interfered with his job. In June it made him leave his job. He was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. His company left his position open. For months he tried to beat it and then it started getting better. He went back to work and it got worse. Then he fell and broke his hand. Within weeks he was diagnosed with ALS. Two terminal diseases at once.
This is when I really got to know him. I never knew the goodness that was inside of him and how people looked up to him.
We had his funeral today in Minnesota. I couldn't be there due to health and distance, but everyone understood. If you're bored, go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/burtlarson and read the journal or guestbook. You might be inspired.
He never lost the will to survive and fought until the end even though he knew the outcome. He refused a tracheotomy and told the family to withhold life sustaining food and water.
He communicated through a extra sense with his mother through his gazing eyes and blinking signals. I'll miss him an awful lot. It only took a year but it was such an agonizing slow one in one sense and it went by in a heartbeat in another sense.