Hi Escape Podders! One year ago, right about now, I was recovering from emergency open heart surgery. One of the first things I saw when I came out of the medicine-sleep-ees was a huge purple and blue bouquet of flowers from Steve Eley and Escape Pod. The second thing I saw was a gnarly scar that runs the length of my sternum and enough tubes, wires, and doo-dads putting things into and taking things out of me to make a Borg cosplay fan-film.
Once news of my condition spread from my hospital room to the greater world, courtesy of my wife Cindy, Steve immediately began a fundraiser to help offset the bills my surgery would generate. As he said, and as it still holds true today, I was - I am - uninsured. He (and you all) managed to raise almost five thousand dollars in only a few short weeks. That money went to heating my house, paying my rent, feeding my kids, and helping to stabilize things as I slowly recovered (12 weeks is a very long time) and resumed my search for employment.
In this past year I've accomplished several milestones, none of which I would have been able to achieve without your monetary, spiritual, and artistic generosity.
I gave up smoking and took up running. I dropped some weight in flab and put it back in in lean muscle. I found some short term contract work. I wrote more Union Dues and Pleasant Hollow stories... though not much else as I had to learn to write without smoking, which was less difficult than I ever imagined it would be.
Seriously, if you smoke, quit. Don't wait until you're being carved open like a roast rabbit.
My kids are happy, and healthy, they are thrilled to have a dad who is both alive, and sports a clean bill of health, not only for a cardiac patient, but health that is exceptional for a non-cardiac patient of my age. (The Gym membership Santa brought me for Christmas has been stupendous.) My wife has a husband who can work, and walk, and do yard stuff, and run, and dance, and be romantic (nudge nudge) without gasping for breath. I have friend and Hapkido teacher who has a red-belt in class that with the stamina now to handle the black belt test, and can do more wind sprints than the kids on the high school football team.
And I have them, and all of you, to thank for it.
I like to think I'm pretty good with words, but sometimes it's impossible to say clearly what so clearly needs to be said.
And sometimes the best I can manage is - thanks.
Jeffrey R. DeRego
Go Union!
