Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The man we all knew.

My Uncle Steve passed away this past Monday night after a difficult struggle with Lou Gehrig's disease. He is survived by his wife and four children and three grand-children.

The Russon family has been very fortunate to not have to deal with death's in the family very often. In fact, Steve is the closest person to me that has passed away since we put my dog down in high school; so I wasn't really sure how any of us would react when this time came. As I have reflected on his life, I feel like I did not know the man as well as I ought. I saw him at family events and we often shared stories and laughs. Steve and I talked about golf and about travel, the two things we had in common. However, I felt like there was so much I didn't know about him. I did not know about his views on life. I didn't know his politics. I didn't know his take on current events or life's situations. I knew how he ate pie.

However, using what I did know and the times we did share, I realized I knew much about the man, and he knew me.

I never saw Steve in any setting without his family. I never saw him not surrounded by people who loved him. I never saw his demeanor as anything but happy; I think it was his default position. Never once, not once, did I hear a negative word come out of his mouth while in my presence. I knew he loved to be active. I knew he loved to help other people. In the last weeks of his life he was still trying to set me up with a job within a local company; he refused to let me change the subject to him. It seems as though the man willed himself to live until after the wedding of his youngest daughter, lasting merely hours after the ceremony.

Perhaps this is all rose colored because of the circumstances. But I am ashamed to think that it took the circumstances for me to see any color at all. My memories of Steve all point towards the same character; a man who I am in awe of. He never lived for himself, even when he knew he was going to die.

I knew the man. I did not know his politics or financial dealings. I did not know his reactions and thoughts to daily occurrences. But I knew him. I knew the life he lived and the legacy he left. I know the children he raised and the family he built. They live on, standing beside those who love them, as a tribute and a testimony to the man we knew, Steven Merlin Russon.



Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. The disorder causes muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body as both the upper and lower motor neurons degenerate, ceasing to send messages to muscles. Unable to function, the muscles gradually weaken, develop fasciculations (twitches) because of denervation, and eventually atrophy because of that denervation. Affected individuals may ultimately lose the ability to initiate and control all voluntary movement. For more information on ALS, click here.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

L&D

Well for the moment, time has seemed to slow down. It is a very interesting experience in life that I was not really prepared for. Life was moving faster than ever before, with more and more stress piling on.

Then out of absolutely nowhere, my little girl was born.

Okay not out of nowhere, but describing where she came from would not be poetic, it was gross! But all of a sudden I find myself sitting in a hospital room with absolutely no sense of time or place - just a little girl who likes to look back into my eyes when I hold her.

Her name is Tessa. She is perfect. She is also pretty darn cute - and I am fairly crtain she's gifted. I mean, I'm not sure; at the moment I'm the guy who can't tell time, but yeah-she's gifted. Tessa was born at 8:35pm on September 14. She weighed in at 6lbs and 6oz and measured at 17 3/4 inches. We are certain that she has inherited her mother's distaste for hospitals and her father's ability to loudly voice her opinion.

And she's gifted.