Uncle Terry Finds Peace

Sometime around Thanksgiving we found out that Uncle Terry was in hospice care. He had exhausted his cancer treatment options and was in his final days. It was incredibly sad, but also completely expected. Uncle Terry had been battling cancer for nearly two years. It all started when a stranger found Uncle Terry slumped over in his truck on the side of a St. Louis expressway.  The news from that first hospital stay was bad. Uncle Terry had stage four brain and lung cancer. He fought hard for more than a year when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. Everything was stacked against him. Still, he fought as long as he could. Maybe it was the soldier in him that kept him fighting. He defied all expectations until his body could take no more. We received the call that he died on Saturday, December 22.  Between the holidays and the government shut down, scheduling a military funeral took longer than normal. Aunt Mary was able to finalize a December 31 funeral. We all gathered in St. Louis for a really funny memorial service featuring by Star Trek and Winnie the Pooh and Aerosmith. We laughed through our tears. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to Uncle Terry.