Journal entry by Brian Reedy — 23 hours agoMy dearest love of my life, my partner in care, partner in marriage, partner in advocacy, partner in parenting and grand-parenting, partner in humor, partner in empathy, partner in exercise, partner in activities, partner in border collies, partner in crime and oh so many other things has passed away.
Her body died this afternoon, but she herself, the spirit of Lily has strengthened in each of us who have been blessed to know her. Those who have spent time with her – been able to share dialogue with her, and just be able to get to know her – know what a genuine and unique treasure she is. In the month of entries here, some of those simple stories have been shared. Many will continue to be shared.
Those who have spoken to me recently ask how I am handling this eventuality. Right now, I am still so richly basking in the positives of this entire hospice experience and the incredible value of a limited amount of time left in life have brought us. Never would I have imagined us walking this path the way that we have. Yet, never would I change one aspect of it.
Here are the basics of what I know the future holds for me. I have resigned from a new national position that I was was recently awarded with the Parkinson’s Foundation. I am sad to let it go, but it is for good reason. I am also stepping down from our position of co-leaders of our Carson City Parkinson’s Awareness & Advocacy Group. It saddens me because we have life-long friends in that group. Yet, this time was coming anyway.
The reason I am leaving those commitments is because I want to use that time to work on Lily’s Love Foundation for Metastatic Breast Cancer. I promised Lily that I would get going to work on getting Metastatic Breast Cancer to a chronic and treatable disease! So, I am peeling away commitments and going towards building upon the advocacy work Lily and I started with metastatic breast cancer.
The commitment that Lily and I received from Senator Cortez Masto is exactly where we will be starting our efforts with Lily’s Love Foundation for Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC). So, I will start slow. I hope many of you will help by either contributing time, resources, ideas, or donations.
Starting tomorrow I will begin some of that new effort. Yes, I will need time to grieve, and I will honor that and expect that it will show itself as my life changes from having Lily by my side, to having Lily stronger in my spirit.
Today, our sons and I will spend time remembering her, mourning her, and celebrating her. We have already had a small service with immediate family. Now it is our time. I know I will continue to mourn her loss endlessly. This is a void that I do not yet realize.
Thank yo to all of you for the countless encouragement support, love, wishes, and beautiful stories. Please continue to share. This journal still has a ways to go. We have more to share together.
We love you, we are blessed and grateful to you, and… well, my emotions are all over the place.
Love,
-Brian
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