Good Bye to Brian Sholes

     I belong to a Buddhist support group for seriously ill people.  It is like a type of family, in that I am able to discuss anything within the group and know that I will continue to be supported and loved.  Although I don't attend the meetings on a weekly basis with any degree of regularity, I try to make it to the group's quarterly potlucks when I can.  They are celebrations of each of us, our creative sides and our bonds.

     Brian Sholes was a long time member of the group.  Like Ann Emerson, a former member of the group, Brian was diagnosed with leukemia.  Also like Ann, he suffered over a prolonged period of time.  It seemed like one part of his body would be particularly impacted, an approach would be found that resulted in improvements, then something else would go wrong. It was a drawn-out, repetitive cycle and certainly not pain free.  Yet Brian would show up, when he could, to play his bagpipes......with the band that he played with, for us at potlucks.  He might be tired, painfully thin but it obviously gave him joy.  It gave us joy to listen to him play.  I will miss Brian very much.  I will miss his upbeat demeanor and his spirit.

     Brian is the fifteenth member to die within our group.  I wish Mick, our group leader (and former psychologist) could have been at Brian's bedside with him, as he was at Ann's.  But, somehow, I have the feeling that Brian is ok now.  Tomorrow, the group will hold a memorial for him and we will celebrate the moments that we shared with him.