With life, and fight, at end, thoughts turn to family
By ANDREW SKERRITT, Times Staff Writer
Published October 23, 2007





[Mike Pease | Times]
In April, John Eannel Jr. was photographed with his wife, Rose, and their kids Austin, 17, Jimmy, 8, and Alexa, 4. Cayenne, the family's golden retriever was adopted about the time Eannel was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.


John Eannel Jr. loved his sports. His bedroom was awash in New York Giants blue. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter looked down from a poster on the wall.

So when he invited friends and relatives over to his house in New Port Richey on Sunday, Oct. 7, they figured it was to watch the football game. The Bucs were taking on Tony Dungy's Indianapolis Colts.

But the 45-year-old father of three, met them with a sober announcement. After four years with Lou Gehrig's disease, John was nearing the end. He would be moving into a Hernando-Pasco Hospice care facility the next day. His strength spent, John relied on his brother-in-law to read a farewell letter.



Dear friends and family:

I knew this letter was inevitable, but I didn't think that I would be at peace with it. Yes, I have made up my mind because I have had enough of watching the people I love suffer. I Thank you all for your generosity and Support! Now we all need to support my wife and kids, parents and sisters. Rose, Austin and James, Alexa and Cayenne have had to endure this despicable disease 24/7 and enough is enough. ... Please help my family get through this difficult time. They are my life.



Some wept openly that John would leave this home that made him so happy, but he had made up his mind.

"He didn't want his children to see him struggle," said his wife, Rose. He lived for his sons Austin, 17, and James, 8, and daughter Alexa, 4. Cayenne was his faithful companion, a golden retriever they adopted about the time John got sick.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, is especially insidious because it cripples the body but leaves the mind alert to every indignity and ache. John fought it with humor and grit. Even in his final days, after he could no longer eat, he wrote in one of his final e-mail messages: "I could really go for a Big Mac."

Two years ago, the Times first wrote about John and his family as they tried to raise money to travel to China for experimental stem cell treatments. About 5,600 Americans are diagnosed with ALS each year and there is no known cure. John was hoping to slow down the disease long enough for Alexa to grow up enough to remember him, long enough for Austin to graduate from high school.

Rose believes the treatments in China bought some time. During his fight, she drew comfort from the extraordinary generosity of family, friends and strangers who each spring showed up in droves to support the John Eannel Jr. Memorial Golf Tournament in Tarpon Springs.

One night after he had entered the Marliere Hospice Care Center in New Port Richey, the guys from his fantasy football league came over and stayed with John until 3 a.m.

"They were mumbling 'I love you, John,'" Rose said. That was John's last good night. He died a few nights later, on Oct. 16.

"Knowing he's at peace gets me through the day," Rose, 42, said of the man she married 10 years ago.

"He handled everything with such dignity."

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at askerritt@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602.