Ace readers have been contacting us all week to ask if a fund has been established for Lexington theatre vet, Robert Parks Johnson’s ongoing battle with cancer.
He posted on his August 2 blog that his insurance struggles were taking more out of him than the cancer:
“Strangely, it is the human obstacles that give me the most trouble. Tumor? blood clot? bring them on. Surgery? deadly radiation? let’s do this. But let some wall eyed weasel in a cheap suit get between me and my doctor and the fight just goes out of me. I turn into a
giant beetle from a Kafka novel, rolling in my own mess, waiting for someone else to decide my fate.
So while it may be my destiny to die at the pencil point of some anonymous clerk with a police script in his hand, there can be no dignity in such a death. None of us wants to die at another person’s choosing. I much prefer the heartwarming scene where my family is gathered around my sick bed…I hope with all my heart to be free of cancers and clots very soon, and I am living my life accordingly. I know it is possible things could work out differently. Let them. If these are my last few months on earth, I will not spend them being angry and resentful toward people I don’t know. Death is the end of this chapter of our lives. That much we’re sure of. I can’t change that, but I can decide how to live the hours between now and then. I will spend them loving, giving thanks, and working to build a better world that I may never see.
When death comes for me, let him find me there, not in a rocking chair cursing insurance companies through my toothless gums.”
Contributions may be sent to:
Robert Parks Johnson Medical Fund
c/o St. Martha’s Episcopal Church
PO Box 1944
Lexington, KY 40522
Make checks payable to St. Martha’s Episcopal Church.
