My mom asked that I post the following message:
It has been
almost a year since our last post. As
with many things in life we get busy and
things get overlooked. And, this blog
was one of them this past year. Another
reason may be because we haven’t had a whole lot of happy news to report. It was always our goal to keep this blog
informative but not too depressing.
As you
probably read from our last post a year ago, Bill’s cancer returned. Spots were found in his lungs, his back and
his liver. The most aggressive was the
liver. Over this past year Bill was on
many different rounds and types of Chemo.
Some “standard of care” and some experimental.
In the
fall, Bill’s hip began hurting and soon thereafter became excruciatingly
painful. It was cancer in his
bones. It was mostly taken care of with
radiation, but at the same time the disease in his liver was growing
rapidly.
On February
18 and 19th, Bill went to work as he did every work day since he was
diagnosed. On February 20th,
he finally decided to take a sick day, as he was just completely worn out. On February 21, Bill saw his doctor and at
that time they informed us there were no treatments left to try and that we
should contact Hospice. Four days later
on February 25th – one day before his 55th birthday – Bill passed away
at a Hospice Center in Houston, Texas.
I truly
wish I could write and tell you that we were able to beat this horrific
disease, but I cannot. What I can tell
you is this: Bill lived life to it’s
fullest for 54 years 364 days. He was a
man of honor, integrity, compassion, humor and love. The Lord may have taken
him earlier than his family would have liked, but as the 400+ people at his memorial
service can attest, Bill touched lives.
Many lives. He never let cancer
get in his way. He went to his doctor
appointments and he did his treatments, but the rest of the time he lived HIS
life the way HE wanted to.
Bill was at
peace with himself, his family and his Heavenly Father. I know, and his children and grandchildren
know, that there is a special place in heaven for this special man. He was deeply loved and he loved deeply back. He will be missed…. Very missed.
Finally…. A
gigantic thank you to our extended family, our dearest friends, our Noble
Drilling family and our church family.
Your support has been no less than miraculous and we have felt loved and
well taken care of.
If someone
runs across this blog and would like to read of our journey, we encourage you
to do so. However, just because our
journey did not end with the miracle of life, it did end peacefully and with
the faith and knowledge that we, as a family, will be reunited again one
day. We will always pray for those that
continue to fight this disease day in and day out. We will pray that soon there will be a cure
for this disease. But, in the meantime,
we will do just as Bill asked us to do…. We will live life and move forward.
Much love
to all,
Maureen
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