Goodbye, Ron!

I did not know Ron personally. I met Marcia and daughter, Heidi, in March last year at Mary Valenti's house. We were having a break - forced by circumstances but nice, nevertheless - from our monthly support group meetings at the Queen's Conference Center and were enjoying noisy chatter by the pool. Marcia and Heidi brought veggies and dip to share and an antique mahjongg set. They had the anxious look of folks who have been touched irreversibly by the illness we know awfully well. With the exemplary control very much defining Southern belles, Marcia obliged our desire to learn the basics of mahjongg. We sooooo wanted them to feel we knew what they were going through and to just try to relax because the road ahead would be long and tough.

Last December, Nancy and I saw Marcia again, after getting kinda lost in their neighborhood. We were dropping off Christmas cookies. It was a very relaxed Marcia that greeted us at the gate. She led us into her beautifully decorated home. It was almost mid afternoon and Ron was resting in their room. Nancy and I oooh'ed and ahhhh'ed at the spectacular Christmas displays while Marcia played our gracious hostess. It occurred to me that she seemed to have come a long way, emotionally, from the first time we met her.

I never met Ron although I'd seen him briefly from across the lobby of the Queen's Conference Center at last year's ALS Seminar.

Ron was 58 when he died. He served as Aston Hotels and Resorts chief financial officer and executive vice president. He was born in Denver. Aside from wife Marcia A., Ron is survived by son Reid, daughter Heidi Rogers, mother Joyce and brother Scott. The family requests that donations be sent to ALS Therapy Development Institute, 215 First St., Cambridge, MA 02142.

Ron, you will be missed by those who loved you and knew you. Godspeed!