Bekah and I went to see him last weekend and I was scared by what I saw. His color was just not right and it took him a few minutes to recognize me. On one hand, I do worry about him and yet, on the other hand, he is a Marine. He survived Guadalcanal during WWII for crying out loud! He was talking about how he was going to write another book about hospitals and how much he hated them! He never let his sense of humor leave him. He was obviously in pain yet, his primary goal was to make sure that those around him were in good spirits and had a smile on their faces.
He is the strongest man I know. I don’t think he will ever know exactly how much he means to me. If I can grow up to be half the man he is, I will consider myself a very lucky man. He is my inspiration and my role model. I love him so very much. And I almost couldn’t handle the fact that he was spouting parental advice to me (as though he’d never see me again) as we were leaving his hospital room. I just kept telling him that I’d see him at his house very soon.
He’s back at home now and is doing better. He’s still very weak, but at least he’s not stuck in a hospital anymore. For that, I’m thankful.
Incidentally, his book From Guadalcanal to Tokyo is available. E-mail me for more information on how to order a copy.
In other website news, I’ve finally gotten my performance resume and curriculum vitae online. You can find them in the list of links to the right. For now, the CV is only in .pdf format (you’ll need to have Acrobat Reader to see them), but I am working on the webview version.