How to die well.
Saturday was the Race for the Cure Downtown - good ol' C-bus ohio hosts the nation's 3rd largest race - and we ain't no where near the top 10 bggest cities in the US. But we have a nationally recognized cancer treatment facility in Columbus (Ohio State's James Cancer Hospital). Cancer research is a big deal here.
One of our family friends, Jerry, is the husband of mom's assistant Liz at our church. He is a city trustee, and a reserve police officer since 1970 - working for the city, OSU, and other suburb municipalities. He (and many, many others) ALWAYS volunteer to work the race as a volunteer officer, so that the event doesn't have to hire city police for the event, and all the more money can be spent on research. No small change when there are 50k runners and 5 kilometers of downtown closed.
This year, just after the start of the race, Jerry had a massive aortic rupture, and the aorta completely separated from his heart. This is what killed Jon Ritter a few years ago. Since he was downtown, he was rushed to a nationally renown trauma hospital, Grant, where they were able to stablize him before emergency surgery. Columbus PD sent cruisers to pick up his wife and son, and they were able to see him before he was rushed into surgery
With what proved to be some of his last words, he thanked his wife for 40 wonderful years and told his son to not be afraid, because he was not afriad... I suppose technically, his LAST words were to the OR team performing the surgery he had a lass than 5% chance of survive ""ok, let's do this guys." The Dispatch wrote up a lovely article on him Sunday (link to web article below)
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/05/17/jerry-ward-always-a-helper.html
Mom helped perform his funeral this morning, with about 800 in attendance - Sistergirl went to his calling hours yesterday and said the lines were out the door (a good 350-400 yards) for over 6 straight hours. Jerry lived to serve others - the kind of life that I think heaven stands up an applauds when it comes to an end. he died as well as he lived, which I guess is no surprise all things considered.
Jerry married into the hispanic version of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding... and his siblings in law were inconsolable today. They considered him more than a brother, but a best friend. Every one of the 6 of them had a separate story of how Jerry drove out to get them when stranding in the sub-zero whether of January in Ohio. ALL of them. And so did about 30 other, because Jerry was the AAA serivce to everyone he knew, even casually. He picked them up, diagnosed the problem, and often FIXED IT with spare parts FROM HIS TRUNK (only occasionally having to go back home to his garage).
The note that Liz AND Jerry wrote to me when sending their regrets to the wedding invite has been hanging on my fridge for about 3 weeks now - because damn, do they hate to miss a good party. When it comes to living, Jerry and liz can show you how it's done.
Lord, may I live up to the standard this brother set in life and in death. Amen.