There is an old adage that talks about throwing spaghetti against the wall to see if it sticks. If it does stick, you know it’s completely cooked. That phrase later became part of the business vernacular as spaghetti became ideas and the purpose was to come up with as many ideas as possible and see which ones worked.
I never really thought about it until the other day, but that is the way we are with friends. You meet thousands of people over a lifetime but few stick around as friends. In the last week, I have met at least 10 new people. I doubt that any will become lifelong friends. You never know, but the likelihood is slim.
Sometimes it just takes a while for the friendship to blossom. You may meet someone, have fairly minimal contact and then go your separate ways only to get reconnected in the future. Over the last six months I have had one of those reconnections change my life.
With all of the teams the boys have played on over the years, they each have had fifty or more coaches. Because of the amount of time you spend with those teams, there is a decent likelihood that a friendship will occur. One of my best friends in the world is Chuck Gould, who coached Jason and Justin for three years . Another of those friends is Chris Valentine, who oddly enough, became a friend as a rival coach before he actually coached Jason.
A couple of summers ago, Chris put together a team of top players from the Columbus area to play in some post season tournaments. The boys did pretty well and we all had a lot of fun travelling around the state. One of Chris’ long time friends, Matt Hare, helped coach the team. I really didn’t get to talk to Matt much, but he seemed like a good kid.
Oddly, the thing that made Matt stand out to us as a family was something Julia’s grandmother, Marge, said while we were at one of the tournaments. To fully understand why this particular comment stood out, you have to understand Julia’s grandmother.
Marge is now 93 years old and has been married to Lester Miller for 70+ years. She is as nice as they come, but she is generally a very quiet and conservative person. It was just before the start of one of the tournament games that she attended, Matt happened to walk by and Marge commented on how nice his legs looked in the shorts he was wearing.
To most, this might not mean much, but knowing Marge as we do, the entire family just about fell out of their chairs with just the thought that Marge would even be looking at a 22 year old’s legs, let alone commenting on how nice they looked. Because of that comment, Matt would never be forgotten in the Churan household.
After the tournaments ended we all went our separate ways and other than retelling the story, Matt drifted from our lives. That was until Chris noted on his Facebook account that Matt was ill this past summer.
Matt was tired and losing a good deal of weight and the doctors could not discover what was wrong with him. However, as Chris described some of the symptoms to us, it started to sound eerily familiar. After weeks in the hospital, it was confirmed, Matt had Multiple Myeloma.
This seemed impossible. Matt was 25 years old. It was unlikely that I, a 56 year old, would even get the disease. This is a disease of old people, certainly not 20-somethings. To add to his problems, Matt also had an accompanying disease, amyloidosis, also a disease that does not normally attack young people. Multiple Myeloma causes plasma cells to malfunction and they lose the ability to respond to controlling signals from immune cells. As a result, abnormal proteins are created that damage bone, bone marrow and other organs. Amyloidosis is a disease in which an abnormal protein (amyloid) builds up in organs and tissues, impairing their function. Both of these disease are treatable, but not curable.
Needless to say, Matt was dealt a hand that just should not have happened. He was too young and too healthy. As one might expect, this was a crushing blow to a young man with his entire life still ahead of him. He was in the hospital for seven weeks as they struggled to discover the cause and begin treatment. An infection from his port caused a trip to the ICU and a great deal of concern for friends and family.
Like myself, Matt has had his battle with doubts about recovery, but through it all, he has remained upbeat with the knowledge that God is on his side. He has shown remarkable progress and has wonderful results from his treatment with Velcade. His Multiple Myeloma is in remission even before his stem cell transplant. The strength that he has shown through this whole thing is amazing. I want to be Matt when I grow up.
The amyloidosis has not shown as good of a response but there is good news as his organs do not show significant damage. I know I have left out a million details so when you have a chance, visit Matt at his blog, please take a read. You will be amazed at the strength of this young man.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewhare/journal
Matt will go into the hospital on January 18 and receive his massive chemotherapy that starts the transplant sequence that same day. He will follow a schedule much like mine and start to feel the effects a few days later. Hopefully, his youth will speed his recovery. Please keep him in your prayers.
Until both of us ended up on the wrong end of an IV, Matt and I lived our somewhat care free lives independent of one another. Because of Multiple Myeloma, we have struck up a friendship that will last for the rest of our lives (hopefully, long lives.) There are many things that draw people together as friends. Sometimes those things are good, sometimes they are bad. For whatever reason, God decided that we needed each other years before the actual discovery of cancer. My, He does work in strange ways.
I never really thought about it until the other day, but that is the way we are with friends. You meet thousands of people over a lifetime but few stick around as friends. In the last week, I have met at least 10 new people. I doubt that any will become lifelong friends. You never know, but the likelihood is slim.
Sometimes it just takes a while for the friendship to blossom. You may meet someone, have fairly minimal contact and then go your separate ways only to get reconnected in the future. Over the last six months I have had one of those reconnections change my life.
With all of the teams the boys have played on over the years, they each have had fifty or more coaches. Because of the amount of time you spend with those teams, there is a decent likelihood that a friendship will occur. One of my best friends in the world is Chuck Gould, who coached Jason and Justin for three years . Another of those friends is Chris Valentine, who oddly enough, became a friend as a rival coach before he actually coached Jason.
A couple of summers ago, Chris put together a team of top players from the Columbus area to play in some post season tournaments. The boys did pretty well and we all had a lot of fun travelling around the state. One of Chris’ long time friends, Matt Hare, helped coach the team. I really didn’t get to talk to Matt much, but he seemed like a good kid.
Oddly, the thing that made Matt stand out to us as a family was something Julia’s grandmother, Marge, said while we were at one of the tournaments. To fully understand why this particular comment stood out, you have to understand Julia’s grandmother.
Marge is now 93 years old and has been married to Lester Miller for 70+ years. She is as nice as they come, but she is generally a very quiet and conservative person. It was just before the start of one of the tournament games that she attended, Matt happened to walk by and Marge commented on how nice his legs looked in the shorts he was wearing.
To most, this might not mean much, but knowing Marge as we do, the entire family just about fell out of their chairs with just the thought that Marge would even be looking at a 22 year old’s legs, let alone commenting on how nice they looked. Because of that comment, Matt would never be forgotten in the Churan household.
After the tournaments ended we all went our separate ways and other than retelling the story, Matt drifted from our lives. That was until Chris noted on his Facebook account that Matt was ill this past summer.
Matt was tired and losing a good deal of weight and the doctors could not discover what was wrong with him. However, as Chris described some of the symptoms to us, it started to sound eerily familiar. After weeks in the hospital, it was confirmed, Matt had Multiple Myeloma.
This seemed impossible. Matt was 25 years old. It was unlikely that I, a 56 year old, would even get the disease. This is a disease of old people, certainly not 20-somethings. To add to his problems, Matt also had an accompanying disease, amyloidosis, also a disease that does not normally attack young people. Multiple Myeloma causes plasma cells to malfunction and they lose the ability to respond to controlling signals from immune cells. As a result, abnormal proteins are created that damage bone, bone marrow and other organs. Amyloidosis is a disease in which an abnormal protein (amyloid) builds up in organs and tissues, impairing their function. Both of these disease are treatable, but not curable.
Needless to say, Matt was dealt a hand that just should not have happened. He was too young and too healthy. As one might expect, this was a crushing blow to a young man with his entire life still ahead of him. He was in the hospital for seven weeks as they struggled to discover the cause and begin treatment. An infection from his port caused a trip to the ICU and a great deal of concern for friends and family.
Like myself, Matt has had his battle with doubts about recovery, but through it all, he has remained upbeat with the knowledge that God is on his side. He has shown remarkable progress and has wonderful results from his treatment with Velcade. His Multiple Myeloma is in remission even before his stem cell transplant. The strength that he has shown through this whole thing is amazing. I want to be Matt when I grow up.
The amyloidosis has not shown as good of a response but there is good news as his organs do not show significant damage. I know I have left out a million details so when you have a chance, visit Matt at his blog, please take a read. You will be amazed at the strength of this young man.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewhare/journal
Matt will go into the hospital on January 18 and receive his massive chemotherapy that starts the transplant sequence that same day. He will follow a schedule much like mine and start to feel the effects a few days later. Hopefully, his youth will speed his recovery. Please keep him in your prayers.
Until both of us ended up on the wrong end of an IV, Matt and I lived our somewhat care free lives independent of one another. Because of Multiple Myeloma, we have struck up a friendship that will last for the rest of our lives (hopefully, long lives.) There are many things that draw people together as friends. Sometimes those things are good, sometimes they are bad. For whatever reason, God decided that we needed each other years before the actual discovery of cancer. My, He does work in strange ways.
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