I am Alicia, age 11. I heard Dad speaking to Mom the other night about making a webpage for Ron. Mom said, it would be nice, but she couldn't do it, and Dad said he would try. While Dad was going through some photo albums to get some of Ron's pictures, he started crying and said he could not do it either, at this time. Dad may get angry, but I thought I would try to get a page started, for them.
This is my brother, and Mom & Dads' only son, Ron. He had just turned 33 years old on 15 January. He was born at Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California. He was a Staff Sergeant in the U. S. Army, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. He lived with his wife and a son, age 16 and daughter, age 9.
He just recently passed away (1 March 1998), battling cancer.
Ron came to visit us this last Thanksgiving Day (26 November 1997), and told Dad that he was not feeling well, and that he was taking medicine for a Respiratory Infection, for over a month, but that it was not doing anything for him. He showed Dad a large lump beside his neck going down onto his shoulder. Dad told him to show it to Mom, and that he needed to see his doctor again, as soon as he returned home, and see what it was.
Ron returned, and about a week later, he called, and informed us that they were going to run some tests and a biopsy on the lump, that the doctor suspected that he may have lymphoma, instead of respiratory infection.
As time passed, we realized the worst, and he began taking radiation and chemotherapy every other week. We were then cheerfully informed that he had "Hodgkins Lymphoma", which was the easiest to treat and had a success rate of 97% to 98% full cure, and probably would not ever have to worry about it recurring again, afterwards.
Ron travelled, between Fort Riley, Kansas and Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas, every other week, to receive his treatment, and was doing real fine with it, and receiving very good reports. He began to gain weight again and told us he was feeling alot better.
Then in February, he was informed he was being sent to the Medical Center, for a 7 month term, for the bi-monthly treatments, instead of having to make the constant trips.
He called Mom the middle of February and said he was doing fine, and had alot of friends in the dorm with him. He asked if she could bake up alot of his favorite cookies, his friends were begging for some, from all his bragging about them. He also asked if she could buy him a stuffed eagle, and if she could copy off several of his favorite songs on cassette tapes, and send them to him. Mom told him she would do all that ASAP, but asked him if he would mind if she handmade him an embossed Eagle pillow, instead of buying a stuffed eagle doll. He excitedly said, Yes! Mom baked up 20 dozen butterscotch, oatmeal & chocolate chip cookies, and handmade him a beautiful pillow with an embossed eagle (see pic below) and copied him alot of tapes.
He called on Wednesday, 25 February, and said he was doing fine and feeling great, and asked how all this was going. Mom told him she had everything done, that he had asked for, and had another surprise for him. Instead of mailing them, Dad said we were taking time off Sunday night (1 March), and was going to drive the 22 hours, and bring them to him. He was estatic.
We made the plans, got the time off. Sunday morning (1 March), we were preparing packing the car, to depart about midnight. At approximately 4:24 p.m., we received a call, that Ron was in a coma and not expected to make it through the remainder of the day. Dad, did not know what to do. He went to pieces, and said "there was no way, even taking a plane, that we could get down there in time".
Two hours later we received a call, that he had passed away. No one knowing why. They said that he had gone to bed Saturday night, and his roommate could not wake him Sunday morning.
On 11 March 1998, he was laid to rest, at Fort Riley, Kansas, with full miliary honors. It was an enormous and beautiful service.
The large pic is of Ron, when he was in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, in Saudi Arabia & Kuwait with the "Black Lion's" Combat Engineers. Dad says the left lower picture is Ron at age 2, and the 2nd pic at about age 6 (a year after Dad returned from the Vietnam War), the 3rd pic at about age 12 and the 4th pic of Ron and his family.
Dad loves all us kids, very much, and shows no favorites (he spanks all our butts), but I have never seen him as proud of anyone, as he was of Ron. The day that, I believe, President Bush announced the official U.S. involvement with Kuwait, we were traveling on the road, to go visit my grandparents, and didn't know about the war. We walked in grandma & grandad's house, as it just came on TV. Dad glued to the TV, in shock and disbelief for 9 days, and would not leave it. I think he would have died there, if CNN had aired it much longer. He really freaked out. When we got back home, Dad talked it over with Mom and started calling Army places, and writing letters, to do all he could to volunteer back on active duty, to be over there with Ron.