Saturday, December 10, 2016

Not All Tiding Are Glad

It's amazing how people you've never met can affect you. I've read thousands and thousands of books over my lifetime and hope to read many, many more, but I rarely have personally met the authors. Thanks to the internet, blogs, posts, pings and Facebook, I've "met" many of the authors I currently read and the doors to their lives are opened periodically and shared with the world. Yesterday a door was opened again that had been closed for a while, but it wasn't good news.


If I recommend one of Eric's books, it's this one. This
journey of a recently departed soul through the people and
events of his life as he journeys toward his final
forever is heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written. 



Eric Arvin is an amazing author - talented, a wonderful sense of humor, and young - heartrendingly young. He is one of six children, three of whom inherited a disease from their father, Jim, called "Cavernous Hemangiomas". Eric had one brain surgery to help with the disease and it left him partially paralyzed, but he worked hard and became the amazing man he is. He got engaged to TJ Klune in October, 2013, but before the end of the year had collapsed and needed emergency surgery. It was a serious risk, but Eric chose to have the surgery again, focusing on a happy future. His chances of recovery were slim, but he survived, unfortunately, as a quadriplegic, and has been completely bedridden and breathing with a ventilator ever since.


Even after the surgery, while he could barely speak, he
still had a smile and a spark that was undeniable. 


He posted occasional videos to his Facebook page and continued trying to write. Eric was transferred home and his mother took over his care. Eleven hours ago his aunt posted that Eric's family has made a decision to turn off his ventilator on Monday. I heard about this from various sources, but I've been fighting back the tears ever since I read this. I never met him, but through the internet and posts I've read and seen for years, I feel I have known him. I posted a link on my FaceBook page yesterday, sharing the family's "GoFundMe" campaign to assist with funeral expenses.





Baby, it's cold outside. I have my phone set to send me Priority messages only while I'm sleeping, so getting a ping shortly after 3:00 am when it should have been silent until 4:00 am startled me. I usually consider calls from my alarm company to be Priority, but understood when I scanned the list of messages and matched the time - cold. It's cold, and my phone was warning me. That's a smart phone - LOL.

So I'll be bundling up for the pool today, and the chances are excellent that my wet hair will flash freeze when I walk back to the car after my swim. It's 6 F (-14.4 C) right now, and we're not expected to get much higher than 13 F (-10.5 C) during the day. We'll also get snow starting late this afternoon, and there's a light wind that is dropping temps down even farther. It's the beginning of winter in Minnesota. *sigh* It's going to be a long one, and I'm so thankful for my new, warm coat. Have a good Saturday and a great weekend, and if you have a few dollars to spare, consider helping Eric's "Go Fund Me" campaign. Let's make this hard time just a little easier for the family. No amount is too small.


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