This past weekend, we lost Ron Scheer, writer, blogger, and long-time contributor to Patti Abbott's Friday's Forgotten Books. His Buddies in the Saddle blog focused on Westerns, crime fiction, videos, and anything else that struck his fancy. He also documented his fight with brain cancer over the past couple of years, a battle he ultimately couldn't win.
On his one-year anniversary of brain surgery in February of this year, he posted the following poignant note:
Today marks an anniversary of sorts. A year ago I was just out of surgery, most of a malignant tumor removed from my brain, I was yet to meet the oncologists who would get me started on chemo and radiation. Mostly I was amazed that I felt few effects from having my cranium cracked open, my gray matter invaded by a team of neurosurgeons I hardly knew, then stapled back together, soon to be sent back home.
My memories of that time are marked by the sound of cactus wrens outside my bedroom, chattering away each morning as I welcomed the new day, sometimes after an endless night of dreadful dreams and sleeplessness. I read Anne Lamott’s little book about three kinds of prayer (thanks, help, wow), which made me both laugh and cry. And I marveled at the flowering plants sent by a family friend. Here we were alive together.
Ron supported the Behrhorst Clinic in Guatemala, where he spent a college summer volunteering. The family has asked that if you want to make a donation, you can do so via the foundation's website.
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