It seems every time I try to create an entry my screen gets hard to read. I know many of you other bloggers are having a similar problem.

What a wonderful acknowledgement the "Volunteer of the Year Award" is for Craig and Shelly. It so eloquently articulates what we have been able to observe the past eleven years - courage, faith, hope, kindness and perseverance.

As I tried to recall some Craigisms many things came to mind. Most were actions not words. Some were hilarious and some were awesome. But one day is etched in my mind like it was yesterday. It was 1998. I was in St. Louis and Craig came to meet me at Union Station for a few drinks. After a couple beers he said he wasn't feeling well and asked if he could crash in my motel room. Of course starting the next day I gave him a hard time for being such a light weight after I had told the other people there what a fun guy he was. A few weeks later Craig called and told me that the problem had been a large amount of fluid retention because he had a disease and was going to need some treatment. You all know the rest of the story, but that day when he called me I was stunned. I was almost as stunned as I was 19 days ago when he told me they could no longer treat him.

Craig and I used to have an ongoing sports competitions. He would beat me at golf and was clearly a better soft ball player, but I would pick odd sports where I could win just to keep the score tied (Craig, you know I caught the biggest fish!). Unfortunately, it looks like my good friend is winning the one race no one wants to win. But I know if he beats me there, he'll have a beer waiting for me in heaven!

My prayers continue - I pray for the pain to stop, for him to be able to hold Shelly again and for Emily to see him smile.

Greg

p.s. Many thanks to those of you in St. Louis who keep the rest of us updated.