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January 2, 2007
Do something: He was a father and husband. He was a minister and counselor. He was a grandfather, uncle and armchair comedian, quick to tell a corny joke that still makes me smile:
"How do you catch a unique rabbit?" Uncle Vinnie would ask me each year as Thanksgiving afternoon turned into Thanksgiving night.
"I dunno," eight- or nine-year-old me would respond.
"You nique up on it!"
And more than anything else, he was a fighter. More than four years ago doctors diagnosed him with quickly spreading liver cancer. The implication he shouldn't make any long term plans. I seem to remember "six months" as being the term that was thrown around.
My Uncle Vinnie didn't like that diagnosis and he fought his disease. He didn't beat it, but he fought it and it wasn't until today that he died.
Since August he has been living in a rehab center and when I went to visit him on the day after Thanksgiving it struck me that he had been brought to that place to essentially wait to die.
Yet it was obvious he didn't see it that way. He was a man of faith and put the well being of his friends and family first -- he assured us he was being well taken care of and that he was comfortable.
For the past two weeks staff at the rehab center have marveled that he remained alive. I don't put much stock in this, but it did seem as if he was hanging on, hoping that someday, after they had had some time to heal, his family wouldn't have to remember the holidays as the anniversary of his death.
It's the type of death where people say things like "It's better this way" and "Now he's at peace." And it's true; the past few months for him have been exisiting, not living. But I also resent those attitudes and dream of a day -- perhaps in a naive and hokey sense -- when we won't have to deal with losing loved ones to cancer.
So I'm saying the same thing I said in November. Do something about it. While my uncle didn;t die of leukemia, I have begun talking with some people about doing another marathon with Team In Training. Cancer is cancer and it all sucks, so it's what I can do. And, as I said in November, you want to do something to make me happy in the mean time, consider helping another Team In Training athlete with a donation. The following are links to donation pages for people who are all training to run the Boston Marathon and who all had a huge hand in making my marathon possible. Donate to one of them or all of them if you can. I know they’d tell you that the smallest donations help: http://www.active.com/donate/tntma/tntmaKFlynn1 http://www.active.com/donate/tntma/run4acure http://www.active.com/donate/tntma/lpepicelliboston
http://www.active.com/donate/tntma/tntmaJRaymon http://www.active.com/donate/tntma/tntmaMMilano
If I’m missing anyone, let me know and I’ll get a link up. Labels: life, TNT
Posted at 4:08 PM
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