by Wendy
my name is Wendy and i am writing about my late husband ken. we lost ken Feb 13th, 2010 to pancreatic cancer. to say he was a good man is an understatement. we worked together, for the department of highways, and even than i knew he was an amazing man. in 1999, ken lost his first wife, pat, to breast cancer. his kids have lost both parents to cancer and neither were even 40yrs old. his pride and joy were his family. he has a daughter and a son plus three beautiful granddaughters.
in 2002, ken and i started seeing one another. i never knew having such a good man for a partner was even possible. I’m finding it hard, in so many ways, to live without him. he was my best friend, so helpful, and for a few yrs a co-worker.
ken and i had the pleasure of adopting two dogs from a rescue in town. when i moved in with him in 2003 he even welcomed my cat, who soon became his. those were our kids together. we enjoyed spending time together and walking our four legged furry kids.
on my 40th birthday he made me the happiest woman alive by asking me to marry him. one yr later on my 41st birthday…Aug 8th, 2008, we got married. it was truly the happiest day of my life. i couldn’t believe how lucky i was. the picture i have attached is from our wedding. i like to believe the smile on his face was for me. that for a few years i brought him some of the happiness he gave me.
in Aug of last last yr he was in BC visiting his daughter when he started feeling ill. by Sept they knew it had something to do with his pancreas. than in Oct he ended up in the hospital and they did exploratory surgery. in DEC he had a heart attack and on DEC 15th, the day i brought him home from the hospital, we found out it was cancer. they still had hope for him but over the holidays he started to get jaundiced and have trouble breathing. on Jan 15th we found out his cancer was terminal and that it had spread to his liver and lungs.
i would like to say that his care was the best but unfortunately it was not. for 6mths he lived with excruciating pain and was never put on the palliative list until his last hospital stay which was a wk before his death. this i find difficult. no one, especially such a wonderful man, should have to live his last days like he did……not in this day and age.
if there is one thing u can say about me is that i have a voice so i used it. i let all know, hoping change would happen for the next unlucky family. this may be the only good thing that comes from his death other than that for 7yrs i got to have a beautiful relationship with an amazing man. some say i didn’t have him long enough. i say I’m happy i got to have him in my life at all.
i would also luv some of the lapel pins. maybe 6 to start. thank you so much for letting me tell ken’s story. i never get tired of letting the world know what a good kind heart it lost.
