Bob’s Story
Bob, Katie and their sons Zachary (age 19) and Ryan (age 17) have been on a grueling and exhausting five year journey. As many of you know, over the past five years Bob has been evaluated at the University of Michigan and the Mayo Clinic, as teams of doctors (some of the best of the best) have worked to determine what has been compromising Bob’s health. Like the strong, loving husband and father that he is…Bob has managed pretty impressively to push forward and not let whatever was compromising his health stop him from going forward and living life. He has been so committed to his family and also his career, in spite of the demanding travel that was required. Regardless, he never lost focus of his family and friends. To that end, he has taken every opportunity to spend time at their family cottage, and to share the love of baseball with his two boys and so many of the youth and their families within the South Lyon community. Bob is always chumming it up with his family, friends, college buddies, and neighbors. However, this past year and even more so within the last six months, Bob’s symptoms have worsened.
While our prayers over the years have been “dear God please help the doctor’s figure out what is going on, so that Bob can finally get on the much desired road to full health,” the doctors provided a diagnosis that didn’t quite fit our hopes and prayers. This past July 2016 Bob was diagnosed with ALS. Stunned! Silenced! Disbelief! ALS is a progressive, neuromuscular disease with a 2 – 5 year average life expectancy. It strikes at random and takes lives swiftly.
While our hearts are stunned with disbelief and feelings of helplessness, it is the unity of our shared love for Bob, Katie, and their boys that we bring Bob’s story forward. We bring it forward in an effort to continue to rally around them, as their 5 year grueling journey took a turn that has an extremely tough outlook ahead that is going to be the hardest fight they will ever experience.
