Stephen Hawking and ALS

I just read here that Stephen Hawking has been hospitalized because of a chest infection he's been fighting for several weeks now. I'm sending all the healing I can his way. I have a lot of respect for him. His mind is absolutely amazing. The amount of years he has survived with ALS aka Lou Gehrig's disease is astounding. 46 years ago he was diagnosed. The life expectancy of someone with ALS is about 2 to 5 years after diagnosis. As with all things, this varies. I've never heard of anyone living as long as Stephen Hawking has.

ALS is personal to me. My grandpa died just 2 months after he was diagnosed. He was 72 years old and I was 16. He was more like my dad. He died at home with grandma and my Aunt Janice sitting at his bedside. I was standing on the porch that day and watched him take his last breath. The rest of the family was there too. I had such tunnel vision that day I can only remember my grandma and aunt beside the bed and I'm not sure if anyone else was in the room that I just didn't see.

The story which pre-dates his diagnosis is a funny one. My 72 year old grandpa ran away from home! You read that right, he ran away. I think it was June 1985. He went for a walk around the block every morning. The only time he didn't was when it rained. I can't remember all the details but at some point we realized he hadn't come home yet. This caused us all to get out and beat the bushes for him. I know most of us were thinking the worst. We'd come across him dead somewhere along the way. Thankfully, we didn't find a body. This only left us more confused as to where the heck he could have gotten off to.

Sometime late that afternoon or early evening, we got a phone call from our family in Kentucky. I think it was from Uncle Chester and Aunt Anna Mae. That was his brother and sister-in-law. Anna Mae was my grandma's sister. Yep, 2 brothers married 2 sisters. *grin* I've always loved that. Anyway, they tell us grandpa is there and he's fine. We all breathe a huge sigh of relief he's alive, then the questions started. Unfortunately, we would have to wait till he came home to get the whole story. Grandpa had been planning his little "vacation" for weeks. There was a guy who lived down the street and every morning grandpa would stop and chat with him. This man is the one who was going to Kentucky for his real vacation. We never knew just how grandpa hitched a ride with him. He went with no clothes, nothing but his cane. He came home a few days later.

I was a couple of months later he developed weakness and had difficulty walking. Grandma got him to the doctor and was diagnosed with ALS. I learned in this time that grandpa ran away to see his family one last time and all the old places in Kentucky where he grew up. He knew before he had symptoms, that we could see, he was going to die. He told me he wanted to find a cave in Kentucky and wait to die. He knew his death wouldn't be quick or easy. He thought about doing it to spare us the agony he knew was coming. The reason he didn't is because we would suffer more than if he were home. Grandma was the one he was most concerned for. They had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Feb.

We laughed about his "vacation" for some time. I still chuckle every time I remember it. How many people can say their grandpa ran away from home? Probably not very many.