When you have good friends like Bob Blair, life itself is s day at the park.
Hang in There with Heart, Steve! ….
Yesterday I received an e-mail from Bob Blair about a friend of his from the local senior baseball program – a fellow named Steve. From the spot-on title of “Sometimes things just change” that Bob Blair gave his cover e-mail, it became quickly obvious as to how much he cares about his buddy Steve. As for me I don’t know Steve personally, but all the wonder I first held about Bob’s reasons for sharing this story with me were erased once I read the letter from Steve that he had received and forwarded to me yesterday with this simple request: “If you have time would you have any interest in helping us by creating a little history about the baseball life of a good teammate who is in the battle for his life?”
Yes! Love is a bigger circle than the one that includes only the people we actually know. The full circle of love includes our full capacity for empathy with others, even physical strangers that are going through a difficult human experience that also may have been ours in the past – or simply “out there still”, awaiting us in the future. None of us own a “pass card” on the biggest threats to humanity.
On matters affecting us all. One more time. United we stand. Divided we fall. In our search for both solutions and resolutions to pain and the continuous, often silent assault upon our ongoing condition of mortality. The thing belongs to us all.
Steve’s Story. Here’s what Steve wrote the other day to Bob Blair, who in turn passed it on to me. It’s lengthy, but I could not condense it. Every word from this fellow Steve here is important to us all.
Judge for yourself:
Good Evening My Friends,
Over the past week, or so, y’all may have noticed that I have not been quite as active on the Social Media Pages where we seem to communicate. In this case, I feel as if I owe, and want to give an explanation.
Friday morning, November 18th, I began to wake up and as I was rolling over in bed I felt probably the worst pain in my lower back, on the left side below the rib cage, that I had ever felt. I woke Kaye up and ask if she would drive me to the emergency room at Woodlands Hospital to attempt to find the source of the problem. At first the thought was that it was a severe muscle spasm and with test, and treatment, things would get better. That was when the testing began. Long story short, I was released from the hospital the night before Thanksgiving with notification that I could actually leave the following morning. By that point, as I said, after many tests I was diagnosed as having both lung and liver cancer, to me, a pretty far cry from a muscle spasm. Sent home, all I could do was wait for results of a liver biopsy which would not be available until this past Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, I met with my oncologist to receive the results. I have what is called “Small Cell Lung and Liver Cancer”. It probably has been active within my system for about nine months which is why it was not discovered during my last annual physical. This type of cancer is very fast moving and, without treatment I would be given about 3 to six months to live. Well, it’s something I cannot accept so today we began a plan of attack. If everything is approved by insurance I will begin Chemo treatments this coming Monday, December 5th. Each round of the Chemo is 3 straight days, every three weeks. My first review to evaluate the treatment will be on, or around, the 13th of December to see if there is any response. And, with whatever happens we move forward from there. Am I surprised, no – not really but it’s not something I think any of us wants to hear, as some of you have already done before. Each of you has always been part of my inspiration.
So there you have it. I had hoped to be able to at least attend our game today but, it was just not meant to be. After all this time together I wanted to let y’all know I love y’all from the bottom of my heart. I have been so very blessed to have y’all in my family and right now I’m reminded of the very old Jimmy Durante song, “Thanks for the Memories”. There are bonds that can never be broken and, never will. I am so very lucky to have love from so many who have come into my life and will cherish every thought. We will continue this fight, and fight to win. Having your support just makes the fight worthwhile for Kaye and I. We are indeed, blessed.
Steve
What a Champion This Guy Steve Truly Is.
The truth is in his words. In spite of the sudden mega-pain, the reach for medical help, in spite of having to wait throughout the long Thanksgiving weekend for some answers to his foreboding human fear of the unknown, in spite of the news that finally came that he had “Small Cell Lung and Liver Cancer” and that he probably was looking at no more than 3 to 4 months left to live, Steve then wrote: “Well, it’s something I cannot accept so today we began a plan of attack.” – He then admits to the absence of surprise about his diagnosis, but he implicitly holds fast to the fact that he has both a choice about how he responds to this situation as he also thanks his known friends for the inspiration and caring presences they each have been in his life.
“We will continue this fight, and fight to win. Having your support just makes the fight worthwhile for Kaye and I. We are indeed, blessed.”
The Blessing of People Like Steve to All of Us
Even those of us who do not know Steve personally can speak to this point. – Are we not all truly blessed also – just to know that there are people like our unmet friend Steve out there – walking this planet with us – who still count the blessings of friendship and love in the face of what just may be the biggest challenge of his mortal life? Baseball people are not the only ones who recognize that how we deal with sudden issues depends a lot on how we’ve been dealing with the long seasons of both baseball and life. In either case, it’s not easy, but much easier to fight back against adversity when we already know the importance of love and support in our lives – full-time, all the time.
As we learned from these beautiful lyrics in the great Broadway musical and movie, “Damn Yankees” ~
“You’ve gotta have hope
Mustn’t sit around and mope
Nothin’s half as bad as it may appear
Wait’ll next year and hope
When your luck is battin’ zero
Get your chin up off the floor
Mister you can be a hero
You can open any door, there’s nothin’ to it but to do it
You’ve gotta have heart
Miles ‘n miles n’ miles of heart”
Steve, we just want you to know that your circle of heart friends is broader than you may have realized. Those of us who pray, will pray for you. Those who do not pray, per se, will offer you their most positive words of love and support. Those of us who fear the uncertain storms of life are now less afraid of whomever Darth Vader is bringing into the game from the pen in a critical game of life situation because we now know that a guy like you is on our side as a teammate. And those of us who are willing to speak to you for themselves from the comment section that follows this column will do so.
Peace and Love from The Pecan Park Eagle – and from the entire baseball family of Planet Earth
Keep us posted, Steve, on how things go from here. If you ever want to write your own story here as either a summary or serial column, just let me know – and we will make it happen for you.
We will do whatever we can to let you know how much love and support we now are willing to put behind your determination to not only fight the good fight here with cancer – but to win it as well.
And May God Bless You – every step of the way!
____________________
Bill McCurdy
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Texas
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 