March 14, 2008 -- So It's Almost Spring?
By 9 o'clock, there was probably a foot of snow on the ground. A snowstorm that had started early the night before raged on throughout the night, and by morning the roads were impassable.
I felt bad for my friend Danny Griffith, who for months had been planning the start of a new church, Horizon Pointe. Today was supposed to be the first of monthly "meetings" until the church opened for real in September.
But no one was getting out that morning. Or at least not many. Since we lived right around the corner from Five Points Elementary School, where the church met, I was able to go. But I was with a lot of empty chairs, at least that morning.
Later that day, Chloe and some friends went sliding all over the neighborhood in a sled that was being hauled around by a riding lawnmower. Looked like fun to me. Evidently, though the Clearcreek Police Department frowned on such things, and before long little 13-year-old Chloe was being chased by the cops. They hid out in Jill's garage until the coast was clear.
Funny.
...
September 14, 2008 -- Like Inside A Tornado
We were only 10 minutes into our golf trip to Norris Lake when I looked out of the van to see trees blowing horizontally in the wind. I was like, "What the heck..." We had an inkling that a storm may be passing through, but we had no idea we would be in for anything as severe as what happened.
Roofs were blown off houses. Electricity was knocked out. By the time we got to Lexington, trees were down and we could not travel in the direction we were headed.
When I called home, Kim and Chloe told me how awful it was. They were alone in the dark, with only the light of a candle. The IGA realized all of its meat products were going to spoil, so Doug Preston was out front grilling everything and then giving it away.
Our golf trip was cut short. When we arrived back home just 36 hours later, our house looked like it was in a war zone.
...
October 15, 2008 -- Thomas B.
We knew something was really wrong when, on a Tuesday in May, Dad did not come in to the office. He never called in sick. The law practice he opened on his own in 1968 was his life, aside from our family. He went in every day, even Saturdays and Sundays, even when his caseload diminished as he got older. There was always something he had his hand in, whether it was a brief or a letter or a consultation with me and Joe or one of the other lawyers about something that needed attended to.
He had complained of a backache as spring arrived. He often said he did not feel well, but still he came to work. But when he did not come in that Tuesday in May, with no apparent concern over what he might be missing, that was a tale-tell sign that he needed serious medical attention.
By this night in October, his diagnosis of esophageal cancer had been confirmed, and chemotherapy was well underway. Though the doctors promised the prognosis was good (I have come to believe they always say that, thinking the mind can cure what medicine cannot), he still required frequent trips to the emergency room. He was miserable, and nothing seemed to help.
As we drove to Miami Valley Hospital that evening, I did my best to talk about the old days when he was young and in good health, where all the good memories lay. And then I always intentionally slipped in a spiritual topic or two, just to keep things in perspective. He told me that while there will still so many things to live for, he was not afraid to die. He did not understand why bad people prospered and why good people suffered (questions he surely would have for God), he believed there was life after death.
I said, "I wonder if the heavens said someone in the Kirby family was going to have to get cancer, and there was a debate on who would get it."
He thought about that for a second. "Give it to me," he said. "I've lived a good life. Everyone else has more to get out of this life than I need to. I've been very fortunate."
On October 31, 2008, we learned his cancer had spread. On November 5, 2008, he took him to the hospital for what would be the final time. He passed away on Monday, November 10, 2008, surrounded by everyone in our family and our office staff.
He was 73.
