matthon
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My very good friend Greg (aka Grego, aka Peck) passed Saturday @ 5:18 am, he was 40.
To make a long story short, his wife had brain cancer about 2 years ago, and is a survivor. His dog had cancer shortly after and died. He had testicular cancer about a year ago and survived.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer about a month ago, and was going to kemo for the last 4 weeks, one week of kemo, one without, and so on.
This past week was the week off, and me, like many others, decided to leave him be as there was a fund raiser planned for this past Saturday at 5 pm.
Thursday night his thumb swelled, he went to the hospital. Friday his arm swelled to a ridiculous proportion. They decided they needed to take the arm or he would not make it, but there was a blot clot from the port, (instead of receiving a shot every time for kemo, you can have a port for injections). The clot became free, and splintered, he passed when they took him into surgery.
He said he didn't think he was going to make it through week 3 of kemo.
He always helped everyone, and whenever he needed help there was always so many people that showed up there was hardly enough to do- of all my loser friends, he was the best.
Without him, I would not have my house as nice as it is, I would not have the knowledge I have, (he worked as an electrician/heating/cooling/etc), I would not have a home for the wife and daughter, I would not have my Turbo T/A, I would not have my Barracuda, I would not have had the chance to know someone so generous that I didn't even fully realize it- I would not be who I am.
We had the benefit, the wife and kids did not attend, understandable. His father and younger brother came later. I could barely speak to them before the waterworks.
The wake is Wednesday, the funeral Thursday- there will easily be thousands of people.
In trying to work through this, I've been thinking that there has to be more, there has to be more that I can do in a day, more that I can help other people, more accepting I can be of others, and see the good in everyone- no matter what.
Greg truly did all of these things- although he did not shy away from making fun of people or laughing at them, or himself, he befriended everyone.
I made a promise to myself to be a better person, and today I'm already doing a horrible job, but I miss my friend and its tough.
I also promised myself that after all of the hype, that I would check up on his wife and kids, months, years from now. My dad passed when I was young, and my mother received much attention the first month or so, and it all faded as people got back to their own lives, or had to deal with their own crisis- I'm not bitter or anything, I just see it as an opportunity to pay him back- finally!
My hope here is that maybe, possibly, this might inspire someone else, as FABO is full of good people, and I'm guessing that like me, ***** and whine sometimes over the smallest things that don't really matter, and fail to acknowledge that others struggle as well- as Greg would say, "Yeah, he is an idiot, but he is a nice kid." and emphasize the last part.
For those of you who made it this far, or just skipped to the end, lol, thank you for your time.
Goodbye 'Peck.'
To make a long story short, his wife had brain cancer about 2 years ago, and is a survivor. His dog had cancer shortly after and died. He had testicular cancer about a year ago and survived.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer about a month ago, and was going to kemo for the last 4 weeks, one week of kemo, one without, and so on.
This past week was the week off, and me, like many others, decided to leave him be as there was a fund raiser planned for this past Saturday at 5 pm.
Thursday night his thumb swelled, he went to the hospital. Friday his arm swelled to a ridiculous proportion. They decided they needed to take the arm or he would not make it, but there was a blot clot from the port, (instead of receiving a shot every time for kemo, you can have a port for injections). The clot became free, and splintered, he passed when they took him into surgery.
He said he didn't think he was going to make it through week 3 of kemo.
He always helped everyone, and whenever he needed help there was always so many people that showed up there was hardly enough to do- of all my loser friends, he was the best.
Without him, I would not have my house as nice as it is, I would not have the knowledge I have, (he worked as an electrician/heating/cooling/etc), I would not have a home for the wife and daughter, I would not have my Turbo T/A, I would not have my Barracuda, I would not have had the chance to know someone so generous that I didn't even fully realize it- I would not be who I am.
We had the benefit, the wife and kids did not attend, understandable. His father and younger brother came later. I could barely speak to them before the waterworks.
The wake is Wednesday, the funeral Thursday- there will easily be thousands of people.
In trying to work through this, I've been thinking that there has to be more, there has to be more that I can do in a day, more that I can help other people, more accepting I can be of others, and see the good in everyone- no matter what.
Greg truly did all of these things- although he did not shy away from making fun of people or laughing at them, or himself, he befriended everyone.
I made a promise to myself to be a better person, and today I'm already doing a horrible job, but I miss my friend and its tough.
I also promised myself that after all of the hype, that I would check up on his wife and kids, months, years from now. My dad passed when I was young, and my mother received much attention the first month or so, and it all faded as people got back to their own lives, or had to deal with their own crisis- I'm not bitter or anything, I just see it as an opportunity to pay him back- finally!
My hope here is that maybe, possibly, this might inspire someone else, as FABO is full of good people, and I'm guessing that like me, ***** and whine sometimes over the smallest things that don't really matter, and fail to acknowledge that others struggle as well- as Greg would say, "Yeah, he is an idiot, but he is a nice kid." and emphasize the last part.
For those of you who made it this far, or just skipped to the end, lol, thank you for your time.
Goodbye 'Peck.'
