…for better or worse

In September last year, I posted this:

We get to meet some amazing people out here on the road

Everyday, there’s at least one person who stays with you

In your thoughts, I mean

Over the years, we have met some incredible people with some equally incredible stories

I wanted to tell you about a kid Dad met years ago

I remember Dad coming home from one of his first tours in the 80’s

He told me all about a 10 year old kid he met.

He’d received a letter from this boy’s family, asking if Dad could maybe meet with him when he was doing a show in their town

His name was Tom

Tom was a huge fan

Tom had Cystic Fibrosis

His prognosis was, in Dad’s words, devastating

Tom was living in a remote outback town in Australia called Coober Pedy. It’s in South Australia, and is often referred to as the opal capital of the world

So the day that Dad met Tom was a great one

They hung out together

Dad took him in their plane for a ride

Took him to the soundcheck and let him check out how all the equipment works at the shows

Tom loved it

I know Dad was blown away by this little kid

Such a personality, with an amazing attitude to life and his illness

Long after Dad said goodbye to Tom, he was deeply affected by his story

Sometimes life is just bullshit isn’t it?

There was nothing fair about what was happening to Tom

Dad never heard anything from, or about Tom after that

But he never forgot

Some 15 years later, a guy cam up to Dad at a show in Sydney

Do you remember years ago when you met a sick kid in Coober Pedy?

Dad told him he did

Well, do you remember signing your Los Angeles Angels baseball cap for him?

Dad said, yeah, of course he remembered

Well I still have that hat

It was Tom

And didn’t that just bring us all undone?

So here’s Tom, who was never expected to make it, all these years later

With his beautiful fiance Kylie

Tom is getting married next year

Who says there are no happy endings?

*****************************

HERE’S THE UPDATE:

Tom & Kylie got married last month!

And they came to the show last night in Orange

Tom is in pretty much perfect health these days

Kylie has just had major surgery on her leg

And has to wait to have one more operation to hopefully have her leg be A-OK again

Once that’s sorted, she can go back on the list

To wait for a kidney donor

She told me the wait, on average, can take anywhere between 4 & 8 years

Yeah, that’s YEARS

I hope it happens for her so much sooner than that

Kylie has already been through one kidney transplant (donated from her Mum)

That ultimately didn’t work out

Kylie said all she really wants is to have her life back again

I can’t imagine the strain that something like this puts on a relationship

Kylie said that Tom has been amazing through it all

From making sure she’s eating right

To carrying her when she’s having trouble walking

Better or worse

That’s what it’s all about isn’t it?

I told Kylie that they are getting their ‘worse’ out of the way while they’re still newlyweds

So that the rest of their lives can be spent enjoying the ‘better’

No one deserves it more

x

Are you an organ donor?

In the UK http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/default.jsp
Australia http://www.donatelife.gov.au/
USA http://organdonor.gov/

GO DO IT!!