This picture was taken December 1995. Right now, it seems like a million years ago. It's inconceivable to me how much has happened since then. Seated is Evelyn, to the right of her in the picture is Lowell, and to the left is Greg. These are my children. They are the most important people in my life and the reason for my being on this planet. By the way, they normally don't look this nice. I think they were dressed up to go out to brunch. Here you can see the last picture of the three of them ever taken
I hope to have more pictures of my children scanned... so I can show them off to the world!! Here is Evelyn's senior picture from Southwest High School which is now nearly ten years old and she is now a graduate of Smith College in Massachusetts ... some baby pictures...unfortunately, I have been very bad about taking pictures.
I have a picture of me now if you care to see what I look like. Yes, I know the picture is too dark. Send your comments to me and tell me what you think. Be kind, please.
One of the most important aspects of my life is volunteering. For most of my adult life, I have been involved in various volunteer organizations. After several years of doing committee work, in too many organizations, I decided to narrow my focus on what I felt was most important. So I focused my time on children at risk. I volunteered on a weekly basis at the Boys and Girls Club in Minneapolis, working at Kid's Cafe. Sometimes all my children came with me, but usually it was just Evelyn and I.
The most rewarding volunteer opportunity I have ever participated in, was being a Care Partner. Basically, we were trained to be a friend to the patient and their family while they are at the University of Minnesota hospital for a bone marrow transplant. Most of the patients come from out of state, so the Care Partner assists them in many ways. This is an offspring of another organization I am involved with, Children's Cancer Research Fund. Evelyn and I had the privilege of working with two families. The first family, we became very close to....and we were in contact with the parents until Greg died. Chris died on February 1, 1996 of complications from her bone marrow transplant. She was a beautiful, brave, funny, wonderful girl, and I think about her daily. She didn't have cancer; instead she had a genetic neurological disease called MLD. Her two older brothers have it, and they will die soon, also. Here is a picture of Chris and her mom, Barb, taken before the bone marrow transplant... while she still had hair.
The second family was Kelly and her mom Deb. Kelly was a fighter all the way. She withstood years of chemo and radiation. Her last hope was a bone marrow transplant. Her dad was the donor, which gave her a better chance for success. However, she wasn't strong enough to keep up the fight. She died on December 29, 1996.
Childhood cancer does not discriminate. It hits kids of all races.. backgrounds. In April 1996, my son, Greg, was diagnosed with a bone tumor. Surgery removed the tumor... as well as his entire left shoulder. This didn't stop him from doing some of his favorite activities, including golf and playing the bass. Greg had two more surgeries in 1998 to remove tumors from his lungs. The only thing that works on his particular kind of cancer is surgery. In January of 1999, Greg went to the hospital because his good arm was numb. It was discovered he had bleeding in his brain. The cancer was spreading, though the doctors couldn't see anything at the time. In May of 1999, they did find a tumor which was successfully removed, only to find shortly thereafter, a tumor in his kidney. It was during surgery to remove this tumor, Greg died. Even had he survived the surgery, which we all expected, since he had done so well after the brain surgery, he would have faced a tough road. His lungs were full of tiny tumors, and he would have died no matter what. So at least he didn't have to suffer anymore.
