A fellow Alaskan Parkie, AC Neimeyer, passed away Friday and was remembered in a memorial service yesterday. AC came to Alaska during WWII. In 1946 he and a companion claimed to be the first to hitchhike down the Alcan. They made cheese sandwiches for the trip but before thy got too far the sandwiches froze solid. The only way they could thaw them was to put them under their arm pits.

The service was uniquely Alaskan as part of the service was the reciting of an old Arctic poem entitled "The Cremation of Sam McGee'. If you are interested in pioneer history you can hear a recital of poem by Clicking here.

AC was one of the two elderly patients that I told you about in Carolyn's thread DBS...early, not later when life is unbearable . AC's primary PD symptom was his speech. His family stated that the PD only affected him above the shoulders. (Perhaps the frozen sandwiches numbed his lower body ) It was very hard to understand him and he would get so frustrated when he couldn't communicate his thoughts that he ended up in tears. I cautioned him that DBS probably wouldn't help his speech but he insisted that is what he wanted to do. He was very active and other than his PD he was in great health for someone nearing 80. The doctors agreed to the surgery only because he was in good physical shape. The DBS did improve his speech for a short period of time. He was able to communicate again with his grandkids for which he was grateful. His health however started deteriorating and on Thanksgiving Day something ruptured in his body and he was rushed to the hospital where he died. How much of an affect that the DBS had on his declining health we will probably never know. His family said he never regretted having the surgery which lifted a burden off my shoulders as I felt I should have discouraged him more in my conversations about DBS with him. He will be missed by all those who knew him.