If David had a favorite color, it would be purple. He was a die hard Minnesota Vikings fan. He also liked the Minnesota Twins.

His favorite song would be Three dog night singing Joy to the world. David was an ardent Star Trek fan...only the original series. David was bald because of radiation at age 18, so he almost always wore a hat. He grew the mustache saying "its telling my head to grow hair".

David loved to hunt and so wanted to get a buck deer once more before he died, but that wasn't to be. And now a solitary deer leaves tracks at his grave on a regular basis. Every single time that we have gone to the cemetery a lone deer (we like to think its a huge buck) has visited just David's grave, stood there for awhile, then disappeared. The deer tracks only show up on David's grave, never anywhere else and we can never find tracks coming in or leaving the cemetery.

David also hunted ducks, pheasants, and geese with his Dad and brothers. We couldn't allow David to hunt the last five years of his life, because he started to shake so bad, couldn't hear, and demonstrated very poor judgment. So it was always a "bone of contention" especially since his Dad would have allowed him to hunt anyway. Now I think the deer (and David) are telling us that he is in "hunting heaven".

 He is also probably "living at a burger and fries place" in heaven---one of his ongoing and deep wishes was to have his favorite foods once again. And I know that he must be surrounded by beautiful girls. He so wanted to have a date in his lifetime, but was never able to. Just 2 weeks before he died, he was doing exceptionally well right before he died), he told me he had to find a girl friend real soon because he would be 38 on his next birthday (in two weeks) and if he didn't find someone and get married by the time he was 40, there was no hope for ever finding someone.

David was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer after graduation from high school and on the day he was enrolled to begin college. The tumor (which showed up out of the blue), was doubling in size every 20 days, and all the doctors brought in for consolation said he would be dead in three to six months, and there was no surgery or chemo that would help him.  They did give him massive and total brain radiation to control the severe pain. Well, he lived for almost 20 years (but not without complications from the radiation) especially as he got older. David died from a massive stroke when his brain just "gave out" completely. The last 9 years of his life, he could not eat (radiation damage to his throat), could not hear (same cause), and had very poor balance and was beginning to exhibit big personality changes and outright anger and suspicions towards me (his Mom), the one person who had been his sole care giver for most of his illness. However, he had also found his first job, graduated from college when all the so called authorities said he could never do it. He had just begun to find "female" friends, began horseback riding, etc.

Just 2 years before David died, we took him to the mayo clinic in Rochester for the first time ever. He wanted to be able to eat again so he wanted them to "fix his swallowing" and he wanted to be able to hear again "cochlear ear implant".  After five days of tests, all the doctors gathered to tell him and us that there was nothing they could do for him. There was silence in the room, he was hanging his head, he finally looked up, stared at them and said "All right, but I'll be back here in TWO YEARS TIME and you better have something figured out by then.

One of David's many doctors through the 20 years was always there for David and we saw him regularly. He was also bald, and David asked him every visit for some miracle treatment. Dr. Norback was always so patient, kind and understanding and really cared for David. He would always tell David, "If I knew of something to grow hair, don't you think I'd be using it myself?  There were many times when David was in critical coma ( a regular occurrence) that he wasn't going to "make it" this time.  Dr. Norback was the only Dr. who ever said to us "We medical people don't have all the answers, and only the Man upstairs makes the calls. Dr. Norback was on Unsolved Mysteries regarding another boy who lived when he shouldn't have and he told the national T.V. audience that there are miracles and that God is the real "director" of our lives.

A MESSAGE FROM MY LOVED ONE

AS YOU HOLD ME CLOSE IN MEMORY
EVEN THOUGH WE ARE APART
MY SPIRIT WILL LIVE ON,
THERE, WITHIN YOUR HEART…
I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS
WHEN YOU LEAN ON TRUSTED FRIENDS
AND THEIR CARING HUGS ENFOLD YOU,
WITHIN THEIR LOVING ARMS
I’LL BE THERE TO HOLD YOU…
I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS

AND BEYOND THE FAR HORIZON,
WHEN WE’LL BE TOGETHER
WHERE LOVE WILL BE ETERNAL
AND LIFE WILL LAST FOREVER
I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS
~ AUTHOR UNKNOWN~