A final blog post

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 19^th, Bill went to work as he did every work day since he was diagnosed.  On February 20^th, 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 55^th 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