In July 2005, my dad was diagnosed with emphysema and life changed for him, as well as my mom, my siblings and me. It was a long road of hospital visits, treatments, and educating ourselves on this horrible disease. My dad loved hunting and fishing and those things were essentially stolen from him throughout the years.

He was a very hard worker his whole life and owned and operated a pizza restaurant for 20 years. In 2010 he was forced into retirement and it was hard for him to understand his purpose anymore. 

Since then, he was ventilated three times and collectively spent months and months of his final years admitted in the hospital. 

Halloween 2017, just three days after 67th birthday, he was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, which is incurable. He was given 3 months. I decided at that moment I would leave my life in San Diego to move home to Wisconsin. I gave my everything to be his caregiver, with my mom’s and sister’s help. We drove him to appointments, fed him his favorite foods, and most importantly made some really beautiful memories with him. In those short months, he taught me so much:

Practice Patience, never lose sight of your sense of humor, and most importantly always be kind and forgiving.

I lost my dad, and my best friend, on August 31st, 2018.

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