The Last Lecture

I am glad that so far everyone has felt that committing the time to reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch was time well spent. Though the premise of the book was extremely sad, I felt like reading it for a second time because I enjoyed it so much. As a healthy parent of 2 great kids, I couldn't help but wish I had the strength, fortitude and ability to reflect that Randy Pausch exhibited during some of his last days.

While reading his book, I took a bit of a different perspective then I thought I would. We are parents who had to face the death of a child long before it should ever have to be. I kept asking myself if we had done and said everything we needed to as Cooper and Campbell's parents, knowing we were facing the end of his life. Though he was still young, we wanted to be sure Coop's life was full, that we would have no regrets and that Campbell would not suffer any undue side effects from losing his treasured brother. It was the same type of planning Randy did, only we weren't planning for us. I remember the day when we met at Children's Hospital for the last time, Jeff, myself, mom ,Uncle Rick and many of Coop's doctors and some support staff were all sitting around a big table. Jeff and I never really had our heads in the clouds during our experience with Coop, so we went in knowing the overall purpose of the "meeting".. However, when the conversation went on, I remember having this overwhelming feeling when it was finally put out there, he most definitely would not survive this illness. No one had ever said that this was the end before. We knew this day could come, but never had to hear it so frankly. Though you think my first thought would be Coop, mine wasn't ... it was Campbell. I kept asking myself how was he going to be able to go through this whole experience and not be negatively influenced by it. Would he ever be "normal"? What were we going to have to do as parents to get him through this? Did we have the strength to survi ve this ourselves?Obviously Coop was our primary focus, but we were the survivors left to continue living, hopefully someday happily again. In the end we feel thankful that the whole experience made us a stronger family rather then the opposite. Experiences like Randy Pausch's and ours can make or break people, and luckily the latter was not the case.

What we realized is when Coop died, the life we knew died with him. We were left to start again, to figure out what life was supposed to look like now, but the beauty of it all was we were left in charge of making the choice- live and live well, or not- that's what it really comes down to. Randy Pausch set his family up to live and to live well. We look at our life now and wonder how we could be so lucky to be where we are. Emerson would have never been, life would not be as rich and we would not know the "secret" we know about living, had our special boy Coop not taught us that.

The Last Lecture

I agree with Larry that Randy Pausch handled himself with dignity and courage and left his family, especially his children, with powerful, positive guidelines for living their lives. Not an easy accomplishment for living parents. It is obvious that he was a brilliant, vital person, and a long discussion could ensue regarding why "bad things happen to good people." Or, a long discussion could be had about how nobly Randy lived his last days. But, I find myself thinking instead of various death scenarios, which I don't even want to get into here. One of the most intriguing discussions I had though was with Craig describing the conversation he had with Larry about being in situations in Vietnam where Larry knew he "could" die and in a particular situation where he was "certain he was going to die." Evidently, in the situation where Larry really thought he was about to die, he felt a sense of peace and found himself on the chicken coop roof in Indiana with Craig when they were about 5 and 6 years old. If you haven't heard that story, it's definitely worth getting Larry into a story-telling mood. Anyway, the book is inspiring, and thought-and-discussion-provoking. It's too bad we can't discuss this one in person. --Jennifer

Haven't heard from anybody about our latest read. I finished " The Last Lecture " some time ago. I think I'll read it again. I was close to death a few times in Vietnam but in most situations my involvement was measured in minutes. I didn't have a lot of time to contemplate. The author on the other hand had months to ponder his waning mortality. He faced it with courage and dignity. Quite a legacy for his family. Good choice Kara. May add more later. Larry

Happy Holidays!

Just a quick hello to everyone to say Happy Holidays. Even though we may not get to see everyone during the holiday season, we still think of all of you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Snow Day

Happy Birthday Emerson!!

On December 10th Emerson officially became a big 4 year old. She had her 4 year check up at the pediatrician yesterday. She weighed 37 lbs and was 42 1/2 in tall. Everything checked out great UNTIL the very end when nurse Camille entered the room and had 4 shots ready to fire. To say the least things got a little tense, but we both survived. Of course receiving 4 stickers, one dinosaur ring and a Christmas pencil didn't hurt either. She had a great birthday party and her all time favorite gift was her drum set.. thanks to Nana Karen and Papa Phil. She is a regular Tommy Lee from Motley Crue :)