Agitation started to swell with in me this week. Everything was crosswise and out of place. I searched to find my source of unsteadiness and then I located it on my bookmark bar: Joe Restaino, September 30, 2009, the video of his chapel talk at McCallie. That was the last time we would be on campus until his service in the very same chapel in January 2010.
I always revisit his chapel talk in the fall but for some reason this year it crept up on me. Maybe because I was busy with the twins, maybe it is too painful or maybe it is hard to see him so frail and gasping for air. But I remember the trip to Chattanooga with our car filled with oxygen tanks, the pain he endured during the trip and his dad helping him dress in the morning. We arrived backstage at Mccallie and his tumor filled lungs were giving out. The cough started along with the sweats just as he saw his friends approach the chapel. I remember he asked me to defer them from coming backstage directing them to the chapel, he did not want them to see him struggle. He was going to be brave to the end. And he was brave and gracious and grateful we were all with him until the end.
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