My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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group more broadly. The email I sent is as follows:
Thank you all for your wishes and your kind praise of dad.
I've linked the obituary at his blog http://docshumybattlewithmerkelcellcancer.blogspot.com/2012/04/obituary.html
His memorial service is today, and while I'm not going to be distracted with technological
issues, I do plan to set up a video camera to capture the event. Since you've become his
family in the same way that soldiers fighting a battle side by side become family, In a war,
there are many battles. Some warriors are felled in battle. Some throw themselves into
the path of danger to protect others (as with experimental surgeries). Some mentor other
soldiers, preparing them to survive their part in the way (a role my dad took on). Some
get lucky and survive, and some powerful warriors are less lucky. But in the end,
spending years with a band of brothers and sisters fighting a heartless, inhuman beast
turns strangers into family. And so it was for my dad. He implicitly sought a promise that
I'd care for my mother, but the only explicit promise he asked of me on his last day was
that I update his blog if he didn't make it. This family, forged in a shared, frightening
common battle against a heartless beast, this family forged in common support and
empathy, this family that met not in person but in heart, this family was on his mind on his
last day. As well it should have been. He died with me at his side, with his wife at his side,
with his children and grandchildren in his heart, and with your thoughts and presence
surrounding him. Thank you for that.
I'd like to post the memorial so you can watch it. I'm not going to be babysitting the video
camera, so if there is a technical failure to record the video, so be it. But if things go as
planned, after a few days I'll be able to put up a link to the video.
I see about 3 more posts to the blog. "Eulogy", "Dying", and "The Future" are likely titles. I
intend to post the eulogy I wrote for him after I deliver it today. I've been drafting a pretty
detailed account of his last day called "dying" (incredibly hard to write, but he found it so
important to bluntly share his experiences to help others prepare for what they might
face). I then intend to close with a post about the future, although the ideas about that are
kind of amorphous so I'm not sure if that post happens or if it happens the way I'm
thinking about it today.
After the last substantive blog post, I'm considering a fundraising and patient support blog
post. This would be links to a PDF version of his blog, a print version, and perhaps a
Kindle format version. They would be available at cost (so PDF free, ebook free, if
distributed via Amazon the minimum cost, physical book probably expensive even sold at
cost). Patients need support, and family, friends and patients would be encouraged to
use the book without paying. For those who find value in the book and who are able to
afford it, I would include information about how they can pay what they wish, donating to
MCC research donate voluntarily in exchange for the book.
I'm off to prepare to bury my father. I'm having a hard day, but having just read this thread
of comments [a set of emails sent by MCC group members in response to my post that
he had died], my day is that much easier.
The power of community cannot be overstated, and the power of this community is
particularly strong.
Thank you for your love. I know my dad was grateful for your support to the end, since he
went out of his way to expressly say so. He was fitted with a BiPAP mask much of the
day, so he spoke perhaps a thousand words or less on his last day and he reserved
some of those for you. I'm glad he did so. You deserve it.
Now I ask each of you to honor him by beating your own MCC. Please make my father
one of the last to die by this disease. You've described it as a beast and a bully and by all
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer