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WE CAN HAVE MANY LIVES, OR JUST ONE, THE FACT IS THAT WE SHOULD LIVE IT AS FULLY AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE WHEN WE GO TO ANOTHER PLAN, FLOOR, ASTRAL, LIFE, OR WHATEVER IS THE NAME, THE ONLY THING THAT LAST IS LOVE, CARE, AFET , RESPECT FOR THOSE WHO LOVED US WHILE WE WERE HERE. I KNOW THAT THE PAIN STAYS, A VACCUM APPEARS, THE FEELING OF A LACK SHOW UP, BUT IT WILL BE LESS EVERY DAY, AND ONE DAY WILL BE JUST LOVE, GOOD MEMORIES AND GOOD MISS OF YOU..MISS YOUR LAUGHTER, YOUR FUNNY WAY, THE SONGS, THE MOVIES, THE LIFE WE LIVE.

I ASK MY BELOVED ONES NOT TO SUFFDER FOR ME, I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND I AM IN A BETTER PLACE, DIFFERT FOR SURE, A BEAUTIFUL GARDEN FULL OF FLOWERS, WITH WONDERFUL PEOPLE WAITING FOR ME, A PLACE WHERE PASSAPORT OR VISAS ARE NOT NECESSARY,FULL OF SUSHIS, SASHIMIS, TEMPURAS, KONIS AND SAQUES (AND WITH NO HANG OVER - PERFECT!).
MAYBE THERE WILL BE THAT HOUSE, WITH WHITE CURTAINS AT THE WINDOW, A WHITE SHORT PICKED FENCE, OR MAYBE THAT BEACH WITH WHITE SAND, WITH BLUE AND ESMERALD GREEN WATER, WITH THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE, I DON'T KNOW, THE ONLY THING I KNOW IS THAT IT IS MY TURN TO TAKE CARE OF YOU AGAIN, TO WATCH AND PROTECT YOU FROM THE PLACE I AM, AND WHEN YOU FELL THAT COOL BREEZE OR THAT GOOD WARM...ITS ME HERE WITH YOU. BUT I WANT EVERY ONE TO KEEP SMILING, SO THEN I WILL BE HAPPY AND KEEP DOING HERE WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO... HELP YOU ALL.

I KNOW I AM STRONG ENOUGH FOR THIS, BECAUSE THEY GAVE IT TO ME WHEN I WAS THERE WITH YOU.

19 DECEMBER 2008.
TIME OF PASS: 17:00 HS.

humberto-from-brazil
Male, 42 years
Brasília, Distrito Federal

I'm 42 yrs old father of six diagnosed with ALS in Mar 2007. I work with my Smart Virtual Keyboard helping ourselves and spreading TDI's and PLM's tools in Brazil. I´m on lithium carbonate since dec 25, 07 and reside in Brazil/Brasília city. I´m system analyst and work as "specialist, customer info" at CA www.ca.com (world industry-leader company in management software). Blog: http://humberto-df.criarumblog.com/ (english-portuguese) See you... http://www.myspace.com/humbertofrombrazil
As of july-23-08 using the fantastic hands-free mouse SmartNav4:AT - Together we stand, divided we fall. Great minds think alike. On FEEDING TUBE since oct 25, 2008.

Angelos lived, loved, laughed

By Tiffany Strong
The Herald Gazette Reporter

ROCKLAND (Dec 20): "Give me tenderloin or give me death."


This was the response that Mark Angelos gave when people suggested he go on a macrobiotic diet.



Mark Angelos in his beloved kitchen in 1987, showing off his perfectly stuffed, ready to be baked lobster. (Image courtesy of Nancy Angelos)



Mark was all about food, said his wife, Nancy Angelos.

"Mark relished food," said close friend Phil Clayton.

So much so that another close friend, Morgan Kirkham, shot a video of Mark called "Steak Night."

"The challenge," said Mark on the video, "is barbecuing from bed."

Angelos, of Rockland, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1982 at the age of 29. In 2004, at the age of 51, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Multiple sclerosis is bad, ALS is a death sentence," said Nancy, a registered nurse since 1995.



Mark Angelos and his son David on Easter 1988. (Image courtesy of Nancy Angelos)



Despite the staggering blow, Mark and Nancy and their two grown children, Megan and David, decided they were not going to let the disease get the best of them.

Nancy said they still had a lot of things they wanted to do. "So we decided to make lemonade from lemons," she said.

They traveled, went to plays, went to concerts, went camping, visited friends and family, and attended the North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland.

In essence, they lived, laughed, cooked and ate.



Mark Angelos with his family on a cruise to Cancun, Mexico, in 2006. From left are Nancy, David and Megan. (Image courtesy of Nancy Angelos)



"If Mark cooked, I cleaned up," said Nancy. "If I cooked, I cleaned up. So he cooked."

But no matter what, Mark was the chef, Nancy said. "Cooking is in his genes," she said. "He was a chef through and through. "

"I was the sous-chef," she said. As time went by and Mark became less able to cook, Nancy began to take over the cooking duties. But she always checked with him before she made a move in the kitchen.

"I felt like I was on a food show," she said.

Mark was thrilled when his son David decided to follow in his footsteps. David went to school at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, N.Y. He graduated in 2005 and is now the chef at Amalfi's Restaurant in Rockland.

Mark's other legacy was his humor. "He could always make me laugh," Nancy said. "He was so funny."

Nancy said she and Mark would go to the grocery store just for entertainment. As she wheeled Mark around in his wheelchair he would strike up conversations with other shoppers. "He would talk to a stranger in the produce section for 30 minutes about jalapeno peppers," she said.

"He would laugh and people aisles away would immediately know Mark was in the store," she said. "His laugh was that memorable."

In fact, Megan made a DVD of her father's life with pictures and music, titled, "Fifty-five years of living, loving, laughing and eating." In it, to the tune of "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles, are photos of Mark with his family, cuddled up with his children, with his wife in Hawaii, on a trip of a lifetime in Greece with extended family, carving a turkey, dressed up for Halloween, cooking lobster, and just having fun.

In May 2006 Mark made the difficult decision to have a tracheotomy so that he could be connected to a ventilator. Breathing had become too difficult for him as the ALS had begun affecting his lungs. He knew that without one he wouldn't live much longer.

It turned out he was right. Doctors told him he would have survived only three or four more weeks without it.

Nancy said he decided to go through with it because as he told her, "I think I'm going to miss something big."

After initial complications, Nancy got her husband back for two more years. And what Mark gained was a core belief in God. He gained peace from the inside out. He gained love, grace and strength. He came to believe in life after death.



Mark Angelos at the North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland in July 2007. (Image courtesy of Nancy Angelos)



He went on to do some more of the things he loved, such as going to a Steely Dan concert with his wife and friends, camping out in hospital beds in friends' living rooms, laughing, cooking and eating.

He and Nancy also began listening to a particular book on tape, "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. It is the true story of Morrie Schwartz, who is dying of ALS, and his relationship with his former student, Albom. They meet on Tuesdays and Albom learns lessons on how to live.

As time passed for Mark, the disease robbed his body of more and more of its functions.

On July 12 of this year Mark and Nancy went to the North Atlantic Blues Festival in Rockland as they had every summer. That Saturday night when they got home, Mark said to Nancy, "I don't want to do this anymore."

At first Nancy thought he meant he didn't want to go back to the festival the following day.

But soon she understood that Mark meant much more than that.

He said he hadn't felt like a part of the crowd. His voice was so low that he had begun wearing a small microphone so that people could hear him. But still, he would have to repeat things three and four times. "By then," he told Nancy, "it's not funny anymore."

Nancy had made a promise to Mark in May 2006 when he decided to go on the ventilator that he was in charge. He would be the one to make the decisions. His children too had agreed to this.

By this past summer his body had completely shut down. He could no longer physically do anything for himself. It took him an hour to eat anything because he would choke. But he could think. And his faith gave him the courage to say he'd had enough.

From listening to "Tuesdays with Morrie," Mark got the idea that he wanted to have a living wake.

"So that's what we did," Nancy said. At one point she asked her daughter Megan, "How do we do this? How do we plan something like this?"

In the end she said it just came together. They wanted to give everyone a chance to come who wanted to be there, so they postponed it a bit to accommodate people who lived out of state.

People arrived from all over the country. "They came out of the woodwork," she said.

"One Saturday night we had more than 30 people at our house," she said. "Our friend Piero, a professional jazz guitarist, came and we had this big party with Mark in the middle. Everyone was singing, dancing, eating and drinking."

Nancy said it went on like this for a month, with memories, laughter, tears, love and feasting.

Mark also loved to play guitar. He owned a Les Paul gold top that he ultimately gave to his son-in-law Chris when he could no longer play it.

"Another night we ended up having a similar party," Nancy said. "People just kept arriving. A lot of our musician friends came with their guitars. Chris came with Mark's Les Paul, Dan Merrill, a guitarist from Portland, came and sat on a stool by Mark. We had birthday cake and singing and we had another beautiful, unbelievable party."

"Everyone felt so blessed that they had the opportunity to say goodbye," she said. "He meant a lot to a lot of people."

Mark died on his 55th birthday, Sept. 16, 2008.

At his funeral, Judith Carpenter gave his eulogy, saying: "I do so with the clear recognition that words are totally inadequate containers for the amazing bigness of Mark's life and for the radiance and peace he came to at the end."


The Herald Gazette Reporter Tiffany Strong can be reached at 207-594-5351 or by e-mail at tstrong@villagesoup.com.

MARTIN CAVANAGH, 64

Custodial engineer for Dept. of Education
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Staten Island Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Native Staten Islander Martin Cavanagh, 64, a retired Department of Education custodian engineer, died Thursday in Staten Island University Hospital, Prince's Bay, due to complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Born in Grant City, Mr. Cavanagh settled in Eltingville in 1998.

Mr. Cavanagh worked for 37 years as a custodial engineer and district plant manager with the city Department of Education. He began his career as a cleaner at PS 41, New Dorp and was promoted to custodial engineer in 1976, working for five years at PS 90 and then for two years in PS 225, both in Brooklyn. He also worked for eight years in PS 16, Tompkinsville. He was promoted to plant manager in the late 1980s, where for five years he supervised over 70 schools in Brooklyn and Staten Island. He retired in 2006.

Mr. Cavanagh was an active member of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 891 for more than three decades.

He held a high pressure steam boiler license, a fire safety directors' license and numerous other job related certificates.

"Marty was always willing to work above and beyond for the students and staff of PS 16. Although he was in charge of the facility, his commitment was to make our school feel like home. He had pride in his school and exuded warmth and a calm presence. It didn't matter if you were a student or the superintendent. He showed everyone the same respect. On a personal note, he will really be missed. He taught me a lot about leadership," said Vincenzia Gallassio, principal of PS 16.

According to family, throughout his career Mr. Cavanagh often encouraged career advancement amongst his employees, setting an example of moving up in the ranks much as he did.

He was included in the 2007/2008 Strathmore's Who's Who for Individuals demonstrating leadership and achievement in their profession.

"I could sum up my father in one word -- teacher," said his son, Martin Jr. "He always took the time to teach me something that would be a value in my life. Every situation he encountered became a life's lesson."

His true passion was auto racing. He was an avid fan of NASCAR and National Hot Rod Association drag racing and often traveled the country watching races.

He also enjoyed racing his world-record-setting 2003 Corvette in the "Corvette Challenge" at Raceway Park, Englishtown, N.J., on the weekends and often winning many trophies during competitions.

Mr. Cavanagh enjoyed building and flying small aircraft. He was known for having extensive knowledge in home building and used that to design and build his own custom home.

Mr. Cavanagh was a devoted supporter of the ALS Association, rallying friends and family to raise tens of thousands of dollars to find a cure for ALS. According to family, he actively participated in many clinical trials to help combat ALS and was a pioneer who traveled internationally to undergo stem cell therapy.

Donating blood was also a lifelong commitment, according to family.

"Dad was someone who was full of life. He was an amazing husband and father. He cherished his family and grandchildren", said his daughter, Kelly Fiore.

His first wife of 19 years, the former Dorothy Lee Evitt, died in 1984.

Along with his daughter, Kelly, also surviving are a wife of 10 years, the former Rosemarie Mangano; two sons, Martin and Shawn; a stepson, Stanley Mangano; a stepdaughter, Marie Elena Brusco; a brother, Kevin; a sister, Dawn Andersen, and seven grandchildren. The funeral will be Monday from the John Vincent Scalia Home for Funerals, Eltingville, with a mass at 9:45 a.m. in Holy Child R.C. Church, Eltingville. Burial will be in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp.

Timmy, you will be missed
Posted: December 21, 2008



Here, on this cold, first day of winter, a few stories about summer fishing trips might help take the chill out of the air.

They're all stories about Tim Trusnik, an incredibly courageous man from Avon who loved to pitch a tent in July or August, fish and sit around a campfire sipping a brew.

Trusnik died this month of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
He was 44, or 26 years younger than me, but I didn't stop calling him "Timmy." For that's what he was to me, from the time he was in his early teens until I said goodbye at Calvary Cemetery.

The disease that took his life is horrible. Yet, in the nine years that he had it, I never heard him complain. Not once.

In fact, it was the opposite. He laughed and joked and talked about the good times that he and his pals had on fishing trips; about his love for the outdoors.

The disease affects the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. The first time I noticed that something was wrong with Tim was a year after he had been diagnosed with ALS.

He, several of our pals and I were on a camping-fishing trip near the Minnesota-Ontario boundary.

During the week we were together, he didn't mention the disease he knew would take his life.

So one evening, Timmy and I were walking up an embankment from the lake to the campsite when he stumbled on a rock and almost fell. He did it a second time and I said, "Enjoy your trips, Timmy?"

He laughed and replied, "I'm getting old like you. Think what I'm gonna be like when I get to be your age." He could have told me he was ill but didn't want to spoil our trip.

As I think back to that day, I understand why Timmy lived longer than the four or five years he was expected to live. He had two young sons, Ben and Jake, and he wanted to be with them as long as possible; he wanted them to remember their dad.

Timmy's dad is Mac Trusnik, Speedway. He has been my friend and fishing pal for 39 years. It was Mac who for years took Timmy to a lake in northern Minnesota until Timmy got old enough to make the trip with his pals.

His mom, Shirley, asked me to give a short eulogy on the day of his funeral. "He wants it to be a celebration of life," she said.

So we celebrated at St. Christopher Catholic Church in Speedway.

We shared stories about the time that Timmy, barely in his teens, said goodnight to five of us in a huge, leaky Ted Williams tent. When he got to his father, he said goodnight and Mac replied, "Good night, Timmy. I love you."

And Timmy replied, "I love you, too, pop."

There was the time that Timmy made sport of his dad who, several years older than the rest of us, was slacking on camp chores one evening.

As he scrubbed pots and pans and washed dishes, Timmy glanced up at Mac living the easy life and said, "Old Mac's playing this senior citizen crap to the hilt, ain't he?"

Then there was the time that he, Larry Fortner and I capsized in a boat in the middle of a cold lake on a 38-degree day. Timmy was in his teens and we had only one life jacket.

During our 40-minute struggle to get to shore, Larry and I, fearing that we would not make it to shore, pleaded with Timmy to put on the life preserver.

But Timmy, whom we had to talk out of swimming a mile for help minutes earlier, refused, saying if Larry and I drowned, he would drown with us.

Lou Gehrig, who died of ALS at 37, said goodbye to 62,000 fans at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. He told them he considered himself "the luckiest man on the face of this earth."

Timmy secretly made arrangements for his family and friends to be told the same thing at his funeral. But all of us knew we were the lucky ones.

Skip Hess writes an outdoor column every other Sunday for The Star. He can be reached at skiphess.outdoor@sbcglobal.net.

http://www.indystar.com/article/2008...47/1287/SPORTS

Former Washington Middle School teacher Playford Thorson, in this photo from 2006, died Friday from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.


Published December 21, 2008 | 12:17 a.m.
Ex-Washington Middle School teacher Playford Thorson dies

BY BILL GUIDA
bguida@kenoshanews.com

Every Christmas Eve when his son and daughter were growing up, Playford V. Thorson III, would read them Clement Clarke Moore’s classic adaptation of “The Night Before Christmas.”

After tucking Andy and Katie in bed, he and wife Kathy would plant a trail of Hershey’s Kisses from their bedroom doors, down the stairs and to the fireplace, where the siblings’ stockings had been hung with loving care, in the hope, of course, that St. Nick soon would be there.

Sadly, Thorson, won’t be there in person this Christmas Eve, although his presence surely will be warmly felt in the family’s memories.

Thorson, 56, died Friday due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, the pernicious, debilitating and relentless illness that in little more than three years robbed him of nearly all physical functions, until it had stolen all but the joy that lit his eyes each time he heard the voices of his much beloved children.


“He was a wonderful husband and a great father,” Kathy said Saturday. “He would grin from ear to ear whenever they called, even in his advanced state. I would put the phone up to his ear or put it on speaker phone if it was the cell. They were the light of his life. We’ll miss him a great deal.

Before being stricken with ALS, Playford taught at Washington Middle School. An instructional media specialist, he joined the Kenosha Unfied School District in 1978 and gained a reputation as someone who loved to laugh — even if the laugh was on him — almost as much as he loved to be in on all the gossip that is the stuff of the workplace.

“He did love gossip. He was the ‘purveyor of information’ is how they put it,” said Kathy, a Unified music teacher and Playford’s wife of 26 years.

She recalled Playford’s unflagging loyalty to the Minnesota Vikings, having been a native of that state, and his devotion to the hockey team at his college alma mater, the University of North Dakota.

Yet, what she’ll likely treasure most was his brave heart, gentle spirit and the parent he was to Katie, who has since graduated college, and Andy, who soon will follow.

“He was a kind and gentle man, well read, very thoughtful, always willing to help anyone. He had a great sense of humor and a servant’s attitude,” Kathy said. “He was a teacher who really cared about his students.”

She reminisced about time spent relaxing with Playford in the pool before his health began to fail. And she recalled how happy it made him to fly to Grand Forks, N.D., to visit the University of North Dakota campus in February 2006, a year after he was diagnosed, and watch the Fighting Sioux not only take the ice, but beat their opponents in newly built Englestad Arena.

We feel pretty lucky that it (ALS) was diagnosed pretty early because a lot of times it takes longer to diagnose,” Kathy said, adding that the medical team with the ALS clinic at Froedert Hospital in Wauwatosa helped the family learn to manage the challenges of the affliction and to cope with the disease that proved so debilitating so rapidly to Playford.

“He went downhill pretty quickly after being diagnosed at the end of June 2005. Within two years, he was at a pretty nonfunctional level except for his brain, and his senses were still there,” Kathy said.

Still, his death Friday was somewhat surprising. A recent doctor’s exam showed his lungs were clear, and he seemed to be doing relatively well, all things considered, according to Kathy.

“He went quietly,” she said. “We weren’t expecting it. I thnk he’s a great loss.”



http://www.kenoshanews.com:80/news/e...s_4037447.html

Former NJC head Marvin Weiss dies


Dr. Marvin W. Weiss, 75, of Canby, Ore., and formerly of Sterling, passed away Dec. 10, 2008, at his home.

He had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) earlier in the year and his health had been declining rapidly at the time of his death.

Born in Elgin, N.D., on May 23, 1933, Weiss earned advanced degrees at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University but continued to credit Dickinson State University, where he received his first degree, for the foundation he needed to become an excellent teacher.

He taught English and German at the high school levels in Edgeley and Tioga, N.D., before moving to Oregon, where he worked as a teacher, vice principal and assistant superintendent for secondary schools.

He was the dean of community education at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, Ore., before becoming the president of Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. His last position was president of Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Wash., which he held until his retirement in 1994.

Weiss came to NJC in 1979 as its third president and served in this capacity until 1988. This was his first college presidency and he was instrumental in developing a community education program at NJC during his time there.

In addition to a number of very good friends and extended family members, Weiss is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marlys, of the family home; a daughter, LaRae and her husband Jerry and their two sons, Annan and Andy, all of Gladstone, Ore.; and a son, Lt. Mark Weiss and wife Marie and their two children, Jacqueline and Jackson, all of Ft. Rucker, Ala.

Marv enjoyed golfing, traveling and doing volunteer work in his community until his health prevented him for enjoying these activities. He and Marlys were dedicated members of the choir at their church. Memorials in his honor may be made to the Canby United Methodist Church to help pay for a new organ. The family also encourages donations to the Hope Scholarship Fund through the Northeastern Junior College Foundation in his name. Cards and memorial gifts may be sent directly to Marlys Weiss at 2003 N. Forrest Court, Canby, OR 97013-2574.

A memorial service for Marv will be held Saturday, Dec. 27, at 11 a.m. at the Canby United Methodist Church.

One-time reporter with Northern Light dies after illness
Published Tuesday December 23rd, 2008
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B9
By Greg Mulock
Northern Light Editor

A Bathurst native who once worked at The Northern Light has died in Salmon Arm, B.C. after a three-year battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.
Dirk Kiy passed away Dec. 15 from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

A 1972 graduate of Bathurst High School, Mr. Kiy still had many friends in the Bathurst area with whom he kept in touch. He was back in the city in 2003 to cover the Canada Winter Games for a newspaper in Salmon Arm.

He had worked for The Northern Light as a reporter-photographer from 1981 to 1982, when the late Frank Mersereau was editor.

Born in 1954, Mr. Kiy had been a star volleyball player with the Unviersity of New Brunswick Red Devils, leading them to the AUS (Atlantic University Sports) championship in 1978 and won a CIAU (Canadian Interscholastic Athletic Union) all-star award in the process.

His obituary notice said "Dirk loved and was loved by the community of Salmon Arm. He worked with troubled young people, ran an outdoor adventure centre, coached high school volleyball and wrote and published many stories. He had a passion for all music and nature."

Mr. Kiy leaves behind a wife and two children.

http://thenorthernlight.canadaeast.c...article/519874

Lou Gehrig's champion dies

Posted: Dec 23, 2008 11:05 AM EST


MADISON (WKOW) -- The inspiration for an annual Madison fundraising walk to benefit people with Lou Gehrig's disease has died.
Family members say Bob Barlow died of cancer Monday.

Barlow also had an uncommon form of Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS.

Barlow's disease progressed more slowly than most ALS patients.

The neuromuscular disease is almost always fatal.

More than a decade ago, Barlow and his many family members founded the MDA Great Walk.

Walkers at the Warner Park event have helped raise thousands of dollars for research into Lou Gehrig's disease.

Also for more than a decade, Bob Barlow and his family volunteered to help make the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon on Channel 27 a success.

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.a...nav=menu1362_2

John Lambert Jr.


Published on 12/23/2008




East Lyme - John T. Lambert, Jr. husband of Elizabeth J. Perry of Old Black Point, Niantic died peacefully in his sleep at home after living with ALS for over two years.

Son of the late Dr. John T. Lambert and Marjorie Richmond Lambert, Joe, as he was known to all of us, was born on July 15, 1957, in New York City. His family moved to Bronxville, N.Y. in the mid 1970s where he graduated from Bronxville High School and later went on to graduate from Quinnipiac University.

After graduation he moved to Old Black Point, Niantic where he spent all his summers as a child and young adult. Joe immediately set to work clearing the land where his home would later stand.

Joe worked as a land surveyor, in construction and always had work as a landscaper. In 1992, Joe founded White Gate Services and built a reputation as one of the top landscapers in the area. In addition to general landscaping, Joe had a passion for renovating many of the old stone walls in and around Old Black Point.

Joe is survived by his wife Beth, his sister Frances Lambert Mattison; his niece and nephew, Ruth and William Mattison of East Lyme; and his aunt and uncle, Julia Richmond Pomeroy and Burdette Pomeroy of Bronxville, N.Y.; as well numerous cousins.

Joe was predeceased by his beloved Labrador Retriever, Bailey. He is survived by Barnum and Kylie.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 27, at St. John's Episcopal Church, 400 Main St., Niantic. Interment to follow at Union Cemetery, Niantic.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Joe's memory may be made to the ALS Association-Connecticut Chapter, Four Oxford Road, Unit D-4, Milford, CT 06460.

Thomas L. Neilan & Sons Funeral Homes, 48 Grand St., New London has been entrusted with funeral arrangements. For online condolences please visit www.neilanfuneralhome.com.

Tribute: Fred W. Kellerman was ‘the best man’ in many ways
By MEREDITH RODRIGUEZ
The Kansas City Star



Who: Fred W. Kellerman, 90, of Kansas City.

When and how he died: Dec. 2, from complications of ALS and Parkinson’s.

Loving home: The Kellerman home resembled Union Station, said his only daughter, Sue Bussjaeger.

“It was a neat house to grow up in, I’ll tell you,” she said.

Kellerman’s 11 children and their friends meant people were coming and going constantly. All of his children’s friends were on a first-name basis with Kellerman.

“He always made you feel like you were one of his own kids,” said son Brian Kellerman. “He involved himself in everybody’s lives.”

His pride and joy: In the Kellerman home, the mom was the boss. Kellerman always referred to himself as the junior partner. His children remember how he always greeted his wife, Josephine, with a kiss when he entered the house.

All of the love in their home stemmed from there, according to son Sean Kellerman.

Because of his example, Brian Kellerman chose his dad to be his best man at his wedding.

“I remember the priest saying he’d never heard of such a thing,” Brian Kellerman said. “The person I wanted standing next to me would best resemble all those things about marriage. I felt like having him there would put me on the right path to a successful marriage.”

Joyful: Kellerman was charming, kindhearted and always smiling.

“He just had a great disposition about him,” said Sean Kellerman.

His children can’t remember him ever saying a negative word.

“He was the kind of guy who never worried about anything. If he did, you’d never know. If he ever suffered, you’d never know,” Brian Kellerman said. “I can’t ever recall a time where he was even mad.”

Instead he focused on the simple and the beautiful.

“Simple things in life meant more to him,” his daughter said. “He found joy in going for long rides in the fall.”

Legacy: Everybody around Kellerman thought he was larger than life.

In religion class, one of his grandkids listed reasons to nominate Kellerman for sainthood. He was a devout Catholic, and he imparted that faith to his large family, mainly through his example.

“He was a very strong character with the highest integrity,” son Kevin Kellerman said. “He loved his wife, his family. Clearly he loved his God.”

Still, he was anything but a bore.

“As saintly as all of that makes Dad sound, what I think we all loved about Dad was he was such a character,” Kevin Kellerman said.

Even though he was too humble to name any of his 10 boys Fred, he was the type of man you would want to be named after.

“Now that he is gone, I wish my name was Fred,” Tim Kellerman said.

Survivors: His wife, 11 children and their spouses, 25 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren

The last word: Bussjaeger remembers the week before he died, when she was decorating the Christmas tree. Her father had lost his ability to speak above a whisper due to ALS and was trying to say something. Kellerman put his hand to his heart. When she came near to listen, he told her that it wasn’t about the decorating. It was about the people.

“You just can’t feel that he’s gone,” she said. “His presence is so strong.”

To suggest community members to profile, send e-mail to tributes@kcstar.com.