[BobbyB]

Corky: Nelsons coping with another twist of fate
CORKY SIMPSON
Tucson Citizen
Sorrow touches us all, but it shouldn't come in battalions.
Twenty years ago, Robert L. Nelson buried his son, David, one of the great athletes in Flowing Wells High School's history, and now he's facing the inevitability of his wife's advanced ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease.
"I do OK until I talk about it," the 70-year-old retired Maya Construction Co. executive said this week. "It's very discouraging.
"You wonder why . . .
"But I was born and raised in Montana - the mining town of Anaconda - so I'm a tough character."
Kathlyn Nelson will be 70 if she makes it to November. She's from Anaconda, too.
"We grew up together," Robert said. "She went to a Catholic high school and I went to a mostly Protestant school, so for rivalry's sake we were 'bitter enemies.' "
One of Nelson's best buddies, the late Roger Rouse, was pretty typical of Anaconda kids, especially when it came to fighting spirit. "Roger fought for light-heavyweight boxing champion of the world three times," Nelson said. "He lost to Bob Foster twice and **** Tiger once."
Robert and Kathlyn have helped run the Flowing Wells High School's wrestling tournament for two decades. They've been among the volunteers who make it "the toughest tournament in the state," Robert said.
David wrestled for Flowing Wells. It was one of three sports in which he won three letters - football, baseball and wrestling. Shortly after graduating from the University of Arizona in 1988, David, who seemingly had the world on a string, committed suicide.
Christopher, the Nelsons' other son, was an all-state wrestler and won two state championships. He then wrestled four years at Northern Colorado, was undefeated (38-0) as a junior until he lost in the NCAA Tournament, then placed third in the NCAAs as a senior.
Both boys were inducted into the Flowing Wells Hall of Fame two years ago, David posthumously.
Christopher manages an Enterprise Car Rental outlet here.
Noel Nelson, Robert and Kathlyn's daughter, quit her job as a TUSD teacher to help provide the 24-hour-a-day care her mother requires. "I don't know what I'd do without Noel," he said. "It would be too much for me."
Kathlyn has had ALS for three years. It's the same disease that claimed the life of Georgia Kindall, wife of former University of Arizona baseball coach Jerry Kindall.
"Kathlyn was the team mother of everything from the time the boys were little," Robert said. "She kept score, she hauled kids around . . . I mean, she did everything for baseball teams, football and wrestling teams.
"Kathlyn and Judy Weber (wife of former Flowing Wells wrestling coach Pat Weber, who now is the school's athletic director) ran the hospitality room at the wrestling tournament for years," he said. "Judy still does it."
Kathlyn, sadly, "is almost completely disabled," her husband said. "She's on medication and there are good days and bad. We've found the greatest people in the world, though, in the ALS Association of Southern Arizona. You'd be surprised at how many people in this community are afflicted with the disease."
Robert takes her to Phoenix every three months "for studies, medication, spinal taps and things."
At Good Samaritan Hospital in the Valley of the Sun, he said "it's one-stop shopping for ALS patients . . . they have all kinds of experts standing in line to help you. Then they have a big conference to decide what should be done, and about a week later they send you a nice letter telling you what you need to do."
He said the Muscular Dystrophy Association has an ALS branch, and "they are very helpful, also."
Robert has a positive attitude about life in general, and it's like warm breath blowing through cold fingers. But when he unpacks his heart and looks back to the good years, the best years, that's when it's tough.
"You've just gotta play your best with the cards you've been dealt," he said.
Corky Simpson, who retired as Tucson Citizen sports columnist last month, writes a weekly Saturday column for the Citizen.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/sports/39269.php