Oct 27, 2019
How do you support families living under the shadow of a long-term illness? Parkinson’s disease is relentless and degenerative. There is no cure. Jason Berns remembers his dad, Don. Don was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 33; Jason was just 8 years old. Jason reflects on the challenges of living in the shadow of Parkinson’s, the importance of honesty and community, and the power of hope.
– Jason Berns
As my dad would say you know Parkinson’s has been extremely hard it didn’t create the life that we would have imagined and in on disability at 41 and but need, neither he nor my mom would say I wish it hadn’t happened. I think it shaped us into who we are. It allowed us to be more of who God has created us to be empathetic sympathetic, caring, driven, gritty, persevering, and and joyful again.
INTRO
In 2019, official US estimates stated that 40 million Americans were caregivers. This means they were helping family members with the tasks of daily living or with their medical needs. These caregivers oftentimes juggle their own families, careers, and personal needs while caring for their loved one.
My guest today is Jason Berns. Jason knows what it is to love and care for a parent with a lingering, debilitating disease. Jason’s father, Don Berns, lived half of his life with Parkinson’s disease.
But first, a little bit more about Jason. Jason is a realtor out in California. He is married to Laura, who is also a co-owner of the business. After a season of infertility, marked by miscarraiges and doctor’s visits, they were delighted to have three girls: Charlotte Caneel, Alexandra Adele, and Elizabeth Dawn.
Jason is also my big cousin; his father, Don, was my Uncle. In my childhood memories, Jason looms large, swooping in from California for a midwestern holiday visit.
- Jason Berns
And boy I've had the blessing of growing up in a loving family. You'll hear a little bit more about that and some of the things that have shaped me through that grew up in I was born in Indianapolis and moved to California when I was one spent most of my young adult life growing years and La Canada and then walking out to Southern California.
- Jason Berns
Then I went to college in Santa Barbara at the opportunity to work overseas in Romania right after the communist regime was overthrown in the orphanages over there.
- Jason Berns
And then I studied in Israel moved back and got my degree in elementary school for about seven years and had an opportunity to go travel and watch tennis around the world and get that in Hawaii in the Caribbean. And that took me all over the world.
- Jason Berns
And then in 2006 moved back knowing that my, my dad probably mom probably needed me to be a little bit closer than living in Hawaii at that time to help care for my dad and to be present.
- Liesel Mertes
My uncle Don Is your father and I know that his health and his presence in your life is really important forming force. Tell us a little bit about his journey with Parkinson's and when as a child you first became aware that your dad had this disease.
- Jason Berns
Yes so I was born in 1973 and was my dad was a college athlete and an engineering major so brains and brawn. He played tennis in college at Duke University and again growing up even as a little kid.
- Jason Berns
I always wanted to be out playing sports throwing a ball hitting the ball kicking a ball whatever it was when skiing.
- Jason Berns
My dad was the youth pastor for our church here in locking me up for a number of years and being with the youth was always very active and I got the benefit of being involved and around those the youth group and seeing dad play basketball or see him play tennis against the varsity tennis players and going and watching it was in March of 1981. We were, my dad led a ski trip every year for the youth group to go to Utah to ski for five days over spring break and in 1981, I was eight my sister was four and we weren't going to ski Utah I'd been going since I was about three so I'd been about five times and I love skiing and was told that we weren't going to be going to ski Utah this year because Dad had to go to the hospital and have pulled off.
- Jason Berns
And didn't think much of it myself other than mom said that there was a little bit of actually no that wasn't the case. So he went to the hospital. It was probably several days of tests and then I remember them coming home and saying that we think Dad has been diagnosed with the disease called Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's, prior to Michael J Fox and his notoriety, was really a disease that most people associated with people 65 and older, people who were just getting older and it was part of getting older for people. And here was my dad: a vibrant active 33 year old a wonderful ministry and very athletic and he was starting to have a little shaking on the left side of his body
- Liesel Mertes
For people who are not familiar with the symptoms or progression of Parkinson's what how is that affecting his day to day? You mentioned the hand tremor and sweating. What did it that look like beyond those symptoms?
- Jason Berns
So, Parkinson's Disease is a neurological disease. They don't really know what causes it. There are there's still lots of research going on out there but it's a progressive disease. It is not something that is, there's no cures. There's no cause. There have been examples of people who have a head injury head injury and later end up being diagnosed with Parkinson's because of a head trauma. So that has, there has been some links to that but most often it starts with a tremor a shaking on one side of the body.
- Jason Berns
There are lots of different strands of the disease but you just slowly lose the ability to do some of the basic life functions. From feeding yourself cutting, cutting meat buttoning your own buttons you'd speak. There are times where you your body sort of freezes and you can't really move there.
- Jason Berns
The disease you're lacking dopamine which is a neurotransmitter which the brain sends out. It's the little messenger that when you want to move your finger the little neurotransmitter that goes from your brain to your finger that sort of allows you to move your pinky finger and it's your lack in the dopamine. So it could be slurred speech. It could be slowing down. Difficulty walking.
- Jason Berns
And I remember when I was in high school having a wheelchair ramp built into the house for the possibility of him being on a wheelchair. My dad was never one who was going to give in to that and was going to continue to function but there were times where he basically froze and couldn't move and you just had to wait.
- Jason Berns
I think one of the things you learn early on in this is you don't want to rescue these people. You may you may just have to be patient and if they're having trouble eating a bite and the tremor in their hand is shaking. Just give them time to get that bite. Don't don't take the fork and put it in their mouth. They're still humans that just is going to take a lot longer especially as the disease progresses. In his mind, there was a documentary done on dad years ago and one of the videos is of him sort of in the middle of the night getting a glass of water because he has to take these medicines to sort of allow him to manage the disease. And again he kind of get the cup of water to his mouth. He just sat there and the whole bottle full glass of water just kept shaking and shaking... sorry I kept shaking in the water all spilled.
- Jason Berns
Again it's not sad because of that but it's just it's a humiliating disease that allows you to lose the basic functions of living in said. My dad had some wonderful friends and finding support. There's a gentleman named John Ball who's now had the disease is his disease for 40 plus years was a similar age bracket as my dad and he still is running marathons.
- Jason Berns
So I think one of the huge things is you have to be able to manage your expectations you have to manage your body. My dad was committed to exercising and continuing to go to the gym up until about probably a year or two before two or three years before he passed away where he was going to the gym and exercising and again people would be afraid that he could hardly walk and could barely get there and yet he'd be pumping iron.
- Jason Berns
And there was no quit. And I think that makes a big difference having that attitude of I'm never going to give up, I'm going to be able to persevere through whatever may come and again so many life lessons in that. So, it's a progressive disease. It's a disease without a cure it, it doesn't necessarily kill you but it certainly defeats your spirit if you allow it.
- Jason Berns
I remember with much gratitude my parents again. I don't think they chose to hide it from me or in our journey from anyone. I think one of the challenges a lot of people have Parkinson's can be a pretty humiliating defeat disease especially as it progresses and I think for better or worse people want to hide it and we end or let bosses or not other people know because you never know what people are going to say. I remember clearly a couple of years later my mom was also a pastor at the church and part of a dream for my parents was to have their own church and be able to be co pastors of a church and they had dear friends who were doing that.
- Jason Berns
And I think that was a dream and I remember going down that journey a little bit and watching and there was a church member where forty five minutes away where they'd gone through the process and were looking seriously about hiring my parents and then discovering he had Parkinson's that they could never hire someone in that situation not knowing his future and I think that dream for my folks sort of was let go. And I think the reality of just sort of the disease continuing and having some people at the church say in the youth group it's a little distracting to have Dad speaking up there...Sorry, I miss my dad.
- Jason Berns
So he was someone with great strength and I again the blessing of how he and my mom chose to live life with Parkinson's was the people, people saw the struggle. People saw that it wasn't easy. As the disease progressed over the years he lived victoriously with the disease for 36 years.
- Liesel Mertes
And what was it like for you as an 8 year old and growing up to, what was your emotional journey like watching your dad have his capacities reduced like that you know it was?
- Jason Berns
As a young athlete, I identified a lot with him and just what would it be like for me not to be able to go play basketball or tennis or whatever and that was so it was hard to see it as we did some family counseling to process it all realizing that everyone handles trauma and stress and challenges differently as we sort of looked at it.
- Jason Berns
My dad, the four of us in our family my dad was sort of the one with the very positive enthusiastic nothing's going to defeat me I can handle it. God's gonna give me strength and we're gonna be okay and that optimistic perseverance is what allowed him to overcome for so many years. My role was probably the one that I took on the worry took on the concern: what's, what's the future hold? What does this mean for him? What does that mean for our family? And how I didn't know and so not being able to control that, that's something that shaped me and later on in life as I've interviewed for jobs.
- Jason Berns
I remember interviewing for a tennis pro job and again where they staff tennis pros at high end resorts around the world and they said Is there something interesting that we need to know and I just sort of said, it's really hard for me to know to not know where I'm gonna go because I could have been sent anywhere and I wanted there certain things you can't control but those are the things I really wanted to control.
- Jason Berns
My mom was probably the one who is the most healthy and letting out some of her disappointment and anger in it and being able to express that which was healthy. And my sister from that time she just she didn't remember dad without the Parkinson's. This was just who Dad always was; he was diagnosed when she was 4 and again I think as she once said Dad was always a little weird, he was always shaking a little. For me, it was, I knew him before and knew what he could do and there was that loss and , I think I really identified with that and what that would be like.
- Jason Berns
I think that's shaped me a lot into the person I am today and having a heart for those with special needs.
- Jason Berns
There was just an ability to be empathetic and understanding to people who were sick and people who may be struggling to do the basics of eating dressing so it's again my life.
- Jason Berns
I would say most definitively in the last 10 years being married that shaped me as much as anything. But prior to that the, the effect of Parkinson's and how that has shaped me in my life and our family is probably a significant event as any
- Liesel Mertes
You talked about returning to the U.S. because you realized that your mom could use some additional support in caring for your dad as he aged and as his Parkinson's progressed. What has it been like to, you know, in his final years have a parent who had those needs as you are establishing a business and raising a young family. How did you feel that that affected your daily rhythms?
- Jason Berns
Daily. As I reflected especially in his passing for 30 again the most for my mom there wasn't a day for thirty six years where she didn't have to think about, I wonder what Don needs and how can I help with that? And I would say, I wasn't as extreme, that there probably weren't many days over the last thirty five years where there wasn't a thought, How's dad? What does Dad need or how can I help? And again he was it wasn't because he was asking for help. It wasn't because mom was saying you need that but there was just sort of the awareness of wanting to be there and be present
- Jason Berns
When I moved back in 2006. He was 60 so it had the disease for twenty five, twenty six years and at least since it had been diagnosed and so those first six months, I lived in an extra bedroom in my parents home that they were in at that point to be present. It was it was intense.
- Jason Berns
As he as the disease progressed and he wasn't able to make the best choices. In some ways, he still wanted to be independent. But things like driving, when it came it became clear that there was a need to take his ability to drive away.
- Jason Berns
That's really painful season of having to be that adult to your parent when your parent's really not that old and be a part of that and help my mom in that process.
- Jason Berns
I remember driving down the street when I was living, living with them and seeing him run two red lights just as he as I was driving the other way. And it just became clear, OK ,this is not safe; his life is in danger and other people's lives are in danger.
- Jason Berns
And then again being able to be be there to lift him up. When Lenny and fallen again as I got, while my dad played tennis golf became the one sport that he could continue to do beyond the young and working out at the gym we could get him in a car we could drive him up next to the ball we could get him out of the cart we could hold him from behind and then he could be shaking, shaking, shaking and then with all the strength and I mean focus and then swing and then he'd fall.
- Jason Berns
And I remember in those us five to 10 years it would not be unlikely that he would fall one hundred twenty times in a round of golf and again falling once is hard on your body but literally going from standing to falling as a 6'4 person, that's a pretty big fall. And the last couple of years or probably the last year the last three or four times we played, he would often pass out and he would fall and pass out and his eyes would roll and then we'd lift him up and carry him back to the cart and then he'd come to be and wouldn't know that anything happened and yet it gave him so much joy to be out there and be able to continue to do things and have that can do attitude even though most would say you're crazy Why are you doing that? And we were able to do that up until the end.
- Liesel Mertes
As I hear that. I mean that's it's an exceptional and painful memory. Like it is exceptional. But how did you, how did you find the strength to do rounds of golf with him? Was, I imagine an that's hard as a child. It's hard to see your dad like that?
- Jason Berns
Yeah. Certainly it was hard, again, developing all sorts of stomach problems from way back in high school and learning how to cope with my own ways. Again, when I worried I had to learn how to be healthy and how to how to deal with that and not just internalize and I've always said as long as I can remember, I've always had a weak stomach because of all the stress and pressure I put on so. But there was the one side of just this is hard but there is always, again, he by his leadership with my mom was you know this there's joy in this.
- Jason Berns
There so much more than the suffering and his, his story is marked by a joy that is not dependent on circumstances. And you know I think there's often that just what I've witnessed from him and learn from he and my mom is that there's a real significant difference between happiness and joy and happiness is circumstantial where you know I can be real happy because my I got this job promotion or my daughter won this award or etc..
- Jason Berns
But the joy is something that joy is something that can't be taken when it walk anymore or when you lose a leg where you where you have to have surgery where you're diagnosed with cancer again circumstances we can't often control and yet joy is something that again as a person of faith comes from something deep within, that is of the Lord and is something much, much more much deeper. So I I think there was there the reality of being willing to say this sucks this is not fair. But I've still got joy in life is good.
- Jason Berns
And the grand scheme of things we are incredibly blessed. And I was fortunate to be able to have been able to see a lot in this world and as challenging as things sometimes have been.
- Jason Berns
We're still far more blessed than we are struggled in the challenges we've, we've, we've faced and
- Jason Berns
Yet, as my dad would say you know Parkinson's has been extremely hard it didn't create the life that we would have imagined and in on disability at 41 and but need, neither he nor my mom would say I wish it hadn't happened. I think it shaped us into who we are. It allowed us to be more of who God has created us to be empathetic sympathetic, caring, driven, gritty, persevering, and and joyful again.
- Jason Berns
But I think life experiences we all will face those challenges and we can get better we can get stronger we can grow or we can sort of shrink and we can get angry and bitter and we'll be in a number of people where Parkinson's has destroyed the family and where debilitating illness has broken things apart or addiction.
- Jason Berns
And we were just on the phone with a client this morning and a marriage of a number of years but addiction and an illness that came from that has broken up the family and I'm very fortunate. My parents made a commitment and shared that with me that my mom promised my dad and lived it out every day that she would never leave leave him no matter how hard it got. And in the same light my dad made the commitment that he would never take his own life no matter how hard it got. And they lived out those commitments they lived out amongst many others
- Liesel Mertes
Thank you for sharing that. As you think about a community of people that come alongside you in this what were ways in which you would really meaningfully supported?
- Jason Berns
Boy. I think that's the power of community. My, my parents had a small group that they were able to be real with and real in the challenges. And I think the call to do life with others is something I witnessed and have observed and certainly tried to emulate and put into practice.
- Jason Berns
I look back at our family and we I think one of the questions that I read before is how did people miss me or misunderstand or miss me in the caring and I feel overwhelmingly that people got it and people helped us people loved us. The church for years they had meals that were prepared that were dropped off at the church for our family not because we're asking for it but it was just a tangible way for people to sort of ,let's drop off a meal at the church anonymously or not anonymously and it would be there for the Berns.
- Jason Berns
My mom; I don't know how she did all that she did but, I mean, those meals that were dropped off, having people just care. There was a gentleman name again as my dad being an athlete and me being an aspiring athlete growing up. A good friend of my father was Brad Holland, who had been a star basketball player at UCLA and drafted by the Lakers the same year as Magic Johnson and was on the Lakers and after his career was cut short because of knee injuries and things that Brad said to my dad as was relayed to me, "Don let me step in and be that father in this sporting arena that you're not able to be and be able to do some of those things so you can." In eighth grade, he coached my all star basketball team and this was someone who would later coached at UCLA coached teams that went to the NCAA tournament and yet he was given his time to coach this little seventh and eighth grader and worked out with me independent individually just to so that there was ways to feel loved and where my dad's disease didn't leave me without. I have gotten so much more.
- Jason Berns
We were cared for we were. We knew that we were not alone in this journey. And that makes all the difference. I think it's hard when I see people who are isolating when they're struggling in the in a journey of debilitating disease because they don't know how to do that. I'm very fortunate that Mom and Dad chose to live out there and the stories that the ways that touched other people as we shared about my dad at his memorial service the person who was ready to commit suicide and then my dad a picture of my dad flashed in front of their eyes and just his ability to struggle in front of other people and be OK.
- Jason Berns
This person chose not to take their own life because they knew that they could persevere.
- Jason Berns
And I think when we allow ourselves to be real and transparent and I think similar to what you're doing Liesel in this podcast on facing the hurt and the sadness that you've experienced in your life and yet finding a way to bless others and let other people hear that life's not real clean and life is messy and life hurts but we can get through it and we we need to do it with others we can't do it on our own.
- Jason Berns
There's just so much truth and richness in that. I've been blessed with incredible fellowship of your friends my entire life. My closest friend from the time I was with Sean Whiting he and I 44 years of doing life together and there's been times where we've been little closer than others. But couple years ago we were in India Lebanon kids at these orphanages together.
- Jason Berns
And I have a group of guys in college who was the discipleship group where we lived together the year after college and yesterday literally as I was in a matter of 15 minutes I had text messages from six of these guys who twenty four years ago we were pursuing life purposefully together on what it means to be intentional about life and as I said to each of them this is so amazing to have twenty four years later after college to have all of us still in touch and being purposeful about living life and we're not in touch all the time but we can connect
- Jason Berns
And about a year ago, I met with a group of guys on a weekly basis for the last 17 years and doing life and walking the challenges of life of stillness of divorce of loss and yet sharing the incredible victories of success personally and professionally. And vacationing together. It's it's just so rich when we can share life with others and yet it it can be really isolating when not in the contrast and I know my life having shared it with others and being pretty transparent about it.
- Jason Berns
Again as you evidenced by this time I've already teared up multiple times I'm pretty emotionally in touch but will not intentionally but will we'll tear up because I care so deeply and that's just part of my makeup and I don't think that would be who I was if I hadn't been through what I went through and been able to see that you know, it's okay for men to cry.
- Jason Berns
I know a lot of men who don't feel like that's OK; it wasn't modeled and my dad certainly wasn't like pretty much more than my dad ever did. But there was the freedom to be real that in the victories and in the, the defeats moving forward through that
- Liesel Mertes
I've, I've teared up a couple of times listening to you. Did, were there as some of this relates specifically to the working environment, did you find yourself, as your dad's disease progressed, needing to be called away from work to help come and care for him or having to put workplace things aside in a particular way? And how did you communicate that to your organization and the people that you worked with? What did that feel like for you?
- Jason Berns
So, I've had three main careers since I graduated high school or college in ninety five. I was an elementary school teacher for seven years and loved it and found it incredibly rewarding and meaningful and I was a tennis pro and running tennis programs around the world and then the last 12 years have been running this real estate business.
- Jason Berns
So yes there were times where I needed to be step away and I was fortunate to have understanding principals when I was an elementary school teacher. Sue Wilson and my first all when I was in Santa Barbara and then Lily Ogden when I was in La Canada you and I were both wonderful and I think people got to know my story. I think I wasn't afraid to share it.
- Jason Berns
And they knew that my values and my priorities were family was going to be of greater importance to me: God, family, business has always been how I've strove to live my life and was modeled and family needs to come first.
- Jason Berns
Now, as the owner of a company I've learned I have work to live that out and encourage that in our in our team members and allowing them to live out that faith and family are of greater importance. Obviously you've got to get the work done and to run a big business. There's there's tasks that need to be done but people need to go be with family because their sickness or illness; being able to be understanding of that as a, as a boss, as a team member, as a I experienced that grace from others and I think that's hugely important to be able to again
- Jason Berns
- I wanted life to be very black and white. I think I saw things pretty black and white. I still think I think I still has things more black and white. If the reality is there's just so much gray and I think as employer or employee it can often be black and white. We want to see it black and white but it's gray.
- Liesel Mertes
So, do you have any words for someone who might be listening and they are right now caring for a parent who is in the midst of something debilitating in their walking that journey again.
- Jason Berns
I just I have no regrets from the, the time I did I think it's important to know your own needs and not be afraid to ask that. Ask for your own needs to be met.
- Jason Berns
I think as a caregiver, my natural caregiving was to help, support, rescue, I the most obvious example of my and I went through a pretty painful divorce when I got married young to someone who there was lots of a lot and dealt with depression and I thought, well I'll just leave her and I'll help her and all rescue her and that did not work. As a caregiver and someone who gives, I need someone who really gives to me as well. And again, there were lots of other things I didn't mean to put any blame but I, as someone who is a caregiver you need someone who cares for you as well someone who digs into you and it's a support.
- Jason Berns
Again it can be pretty overwhelming not knowing how long this how long the caregiving can go. Being willing to ask for help. I'd say get involved in a community of support for my dad and his Parkinson's. One of the things again I learned from watching him was he started these groups with other Parkinson's patients where the other Pakis could speak about what was going on and being able to understand that have that support group where other people who are caregivers are talking to you about the challenges they face other people who are going through the journey of sickness and illness and just a not a real optimistic future looking.
- Jason Berns
My dad often gets a lot of the credit for how he lived his life. But who my mom was and standing beside him and loving him who my sister was as his daughter and the way she sacrificed and gave him again as a dad was struggling. He still wanted to ride bikes. And so we got him this three wheel bike and it flags all over just so he could ride his bike to the to the gym and we'd get calls from people across town who would be concerned.
- Jason Berns
I saw Don riding across the freeway intersection and he got stuck and yet somehow he still got home enjoy going out and picking him up on this three wheeled bike in the middle of nowhere. And again, it was just sort of dad you just sort of. He needed to have those outlets he needed to have that ability to do that you needed to let him do that.
- Jason Berns
But there was also those times of Dad and again he hated it when we wanted him to be safe because in his view being safe isn't there was going to be no quality of life. Yet there was finding that balance of safe and yet risk again.
- Jason Berns
Life is gonna throw curveballs and hard stuff at us. But there's so much more purpose in whatever that may be. It's easy for me to say never give up but I think when people saw my dad in his life it spoke a little more powerfully because he to get out of bed to make, make the decision to live for many years was more than most would ever have given. And it would have been easy to just give up. Yet he continued to. And so two of my three girls know him because he fought and Elizabeth Elizabeth Dawn is named after him.
- Jason Berns
You'll know him by her name and by the stories we tell and the lives that have been impacted again after his passing the number of comments and notes of sharing about his life and the purpose he had and the joy that he and my mom exhibited. You just never know. So never give up. I think those would be his words and I will resonate with that. And there is a joy in this journey that is not dependent upon circumstances and we can persevere and get your tribe. Get your people who you can do life w who you can be real with and who aren't afraid of you asking the hard questions on because we need that.
- Jason Berns
We're not called to do life on our own. And relationships are hard. Marriage relationships are hard. Parents parent children relationships are hard work. Relationships are hard. But we've got a pretty strong call to stay reconciled and to be right and there is no greater love than the one that you lay down your life for one another and being able to do that.
- Jason Berns
Again some ways that you can see it real transparently what that looks like and other times it's going to be more in the subtleties and I'm thankful for my dad. I'm thankful for my mom I'm thankful for a wife who who gets me and supports me and we get to pass on these lessons to our children and to the children we get to love and Pasadena in Monrovia in India and around the world as we're trying to impact and improve the lives of others through our through our purpose.
- Liesel Mertes
Thank you for sharing those reflections. And I agree. Don Berns was exceptional. I'm so glad that my life intersected with him. And I'm so thankful that you took time to share about him and his influence in your life today.
- Jason Berns
You're welcome. I hope that there is value to those people out there somehow some way.
MUSICAL TRANSITION
A few take-aways emerge after my conversation with Jason.
- Community was essential for Jason and his family. In his words, “We are not called to do life on our own.” The Berns family benefitted from meals deliveries, from men that stepped in to coach basketball teams, and from friends that have been with them to share joy and sorrow over the years. If you are a friend or a coworker with someone that is a caregiver, don’t shrink back. Consider the ways that you can come alongside them with friendship and meaningful gestures? If you are a caregiver, what support groups are available in your area for both you and for the person you are caring for? Find people that will pour into you.
- At your company, it is alright for people to step back from work as a result of life circumstances? Jason talked about his supportive principals and the way that he now manages his own real estate business. Jason seeks to model his values of God, family, business and encourages his employees to do likewise. What values are explicitly or implicitly being modeled in your organization?
- Faith and hope can be a tremendously important part of what helps men and women survive and thrive in the aftermath disruption.Even in the midst of a relentless disease, Uncle Don maintained this remarkable grit and hopefulness that transcended personality. He believed that his failing body was not the final reality, he believed that there was more. If you are in the midst of a darkness that seems overwhelming, may a glint of hope find and surprise you today.
OUTRO