CrazyUnk - RIP

UPDATED and BUMPED 6.9:

A celebration of CrazyUnk's life will be this coming Saturday, June 16 in Seymour Indiana.

Click Here for details.

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[original post: May 21]

CrazyUnk, from blog Your Crazy Uncle, passed away in his sleep Saturday morning.

He was diagnosed with Colon cancer in February and he did everything he could to defeat the disease.  Surgery had saved his colon but chemo was not effective for the cancer that had spread to his liver.

He went down swinging.

We had traded email with CrazyUnk in 2011 after we had found his blog, but did not meet until after his diagnosis.  We contacted him and insisted he let us help him in this battle, and we visited about once a week between diagnosis and his passing.

Some thoughts about CrazyUnk:

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Thank you, God, for our new friend.

CrazyUnk was full of energy.  Our memory from our first visit was a violent slap on the back, a big smile, and “I can’t believe we’re finally meeting!”.

CrazyUnk was a strong and resourceful man.  

He was frustrated with the pain medication and was in pain for the entire three months.  His frustration was the diminished alertness, but all it really did was slow CrazyUnk down to a normal level.  His mind was so energetic, those pills had little effect.

Time spent with CrazyUnk was a great reminder of what a strong family should look like. He and his wife have three wonderful grown children.  All with the core values that we often worry are missing in today’s society.  Those values are not missing, and we should be reminded that great people exist and those great people raise more great people.  We are very optimistic about his family’s continued successes in life.

We felt a connection when we found CrazyUnk’s blog.  Same thoughts that we have, but an advanced level of humor and sarcasm that we can only dream of.  We felt a connection in the areas of politics, guns, general events in today’s society, and a shared concern for the future of liberty.  It was easy to bookmark his blog in our “Daily” folder of bookmarks.  His Gratutitous Pictures of the Day were a crackup!

We had several reasons for offering to help CrazyUnk.  Hopefully our presence would cheer him up.  A close second was to provide his wife and family a short break.  A third was to shield his family from any negatives - to absorb any despair so they could enjoy the most positive moments.  We know we succeeded in the first two goals.  The third never materialized.

CrazyUnk set a standard of dignity and peacefulness in his final days that amazed us.  He was cheated from a longer life, but never expressed this to us.  He died with one regret: he wished he had gone in for a colonoscopy when his doctor suggested.

In contrast, we have many regrets:  Not knowing CrazyUnk before his diagnosis.  Not realizing the speed of the disease until the last few days.  Not saying this.  Or that.  Never getting a chance to go to a ball game with this fellow Cubs fan.  Or joining him for one of the high-end beers that he liked.  Or asking him to pick up a large coffee at Starbucks for us.

But like his sister-in-law told us, and we agree: he knew all this.

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The top photo is CrazyUnk and Karl earlier this month.

The second photo is a church in the tornado-ravaged Holton Indiana.  This church became a milestone on our drives to and from CrazyUnk’s place, and a reminder of how many hits we can take without losing focus of what is important.

Links:

Blog: Your Crazy Uncle

Cancer Blog: Not What I Wanted to Hear, Doc   - Please leave comments there!

Ushanka posts about visits with CrazyUnk:  March 16, April 18, and April 25.

UPDATED 5.24

Tam

Green Mountains Homesteading

San Jacinto County Outlaw

UPDATED 5.31

Keep It Simple Survival

UPDATED 6.4

CrazyUnk's wife has posted the news at his site.

Pondering.......

American Apocalypse