Today marks one month since jan howard finder died, from complications of cancer and chemotherapy. My world stopped for a moment, while I reconfigured to a different way of living, without The Wombat in it.
jan howard finder died at 12:54am on Tuesday, February 26, 2013, in Albany Medical Center Hospital CCU, from complications of his cancer and chemo. The cause of death was listed as “multi-organ failure”. Basically liver and kidneys just stopped working. We have dialysis for kidneys, but when the liver stops, there’s not much to easily replace it.
I was with him when he died, and I had a friend with me. We probably had the hospital staff wondering about us, because we sat there and told silly jan stories and laughed a lot. At the end, my friend found the “Misty Mountains” chant by the dwarves in front of Bilbo’s fireplace, from the Hobbit, and played it. It was perfect.
jan was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in 2004, and so had had an eight year run living with cancer. That’s not too shabby. I had three and a half years of crazy Wombat, the last year and a half living with him. I got to see The Wombat at home, in his private moments. And found out he was just as crazy, silly, and marvelous when he had an audience of only one.
The outpouring of love and support has been amazing and wonderful.