To a great man:
October 27th 2011 on a dark brown leather couch, in a dimly lit room, surrounded by large books, that resembled more of a library than the office of the country's leading neurology oncologist, we were delivered "the news." Like a page from a movie, my family's world crushed in a second. The room filling with what can only be described as a thick hot pulse of disbelief. I remember it very clearly. The Doctor's words..."of everything I do in my profession, this is one part I wish I could eliminate and never do again. Brian, (my father), you have what we call a Glio Blastoma. It's a malignant aggressive brain tumor, and there are two of them." (We didn't even bother to look at the MRI) Surgery was not an option, but maximizing the next 4 months of his life was. As if the diagnosis of Parkinson's almost exactly one year prior hadn't been enough, my dad, best friend, and father was now given a definitive expiration date with a prognosis of 3-6 months. He made it 4. And on Feb 4th 2012, he passed away after one week of care at Calvary Hospital/Hospice. Ironically, a stone's throw away from where my dad had spent the better part of his 60 years of life helping save and teach others at the Albert Einstein Hospital. A doctor, a father, a husband, a best friend, a teacher, a therapist, a confidant, an artist, my dad had barely scratched the surface of what his life could be. And just saying those two words out loud, "could be" is what drives me forward in this mission. This isn't about my father, my sister, my mother, my friends, my family, my profession...this is about fulfilling a secret my father gave me a long time ago. I had expressed concern over how fast life was moving, mind you, I was 10 years old at the time. Always patient, my dad offered me a solution. He always had solutions. He told me, "David, you know there's a way to slow down time don't you?" I couldn't believe it, he invented a time machine. Well not quite, but his answer did help my curious little brain out quite a bit. He said, "enjoy every moment of life, and time will slow down." Without fail, wherever I have landed, I have enjoyed every moment. In good times we laugh, in bad times we laugh harder. In good times we cry, and in bad times we cry harder. This is how I've begun to slow down time. When I figure out how to freeze it, I'll let you know :)
