Thank you all! I've been asked often about this (what I'm going through with ALS) for a while now, so I figured I'd do a big post.

Taken in 1997 in The Colony (Dallas), Texas

Thank you all! I've been asked often about this (what I'm going through with ALS) for a while now, so I figured I'd do a big post. 

Everyday is a new adventure and this disease is moving through me very quickly - even for ALS, mine appears to be very aggressive.

Gosh, only four month's ago I was still driving and helping with Lexie's Trading Post (before Karen Crook took my car keys away, thank God...), three month's ago the falling started, two month's ago I was still teaching, helping cook dinner, helping with the laundry and helping the kids with their homework. A little over a month ago I lost the ability to walk and talk... Now I cannot help with anything and only take - and I don't say that lightly... =0(

I will tell you all this when faced with the real prospect of "really" dying... NOTHING, and I mean nothing material matters anymore - and you find when you really take stock of your life, that it never really did. Looking back, the Rolling Stone's really did get it right, "You can't always get what you want, you get what you need..."

As cheesy as it may sound, LOVE (and hAving loved) is all that ever mattered, because your loved one's and dear friends will be the one's that carry your memory forward. They are also the very one's that will help you in times like this: bring over dinners, drop off casseroles and tasty desserts, make sure you get your meds, put your socks on, give you a bath and even help you blow your nose, to name but a very few things Karen Crook, Grace Drake Crook, and Jerry McCombs - and my wonderful kids help me with. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, I'm very VERY fortunate to have you all in my life.

... and that didn't happen by accident, it happened because I loved and was loved in return. I've screwed up A LOT in my life, but this I got right...

My Hosparus nurse tells me of many people that are dying alone, or in families that don't care for the dying very well right here in Louisville - and it breaks my heart. THAT's what love (and having loved) will bring into your life when you need it the most. I'm very fortunate indeed... =0)

Love one another...

~ Gary Crook | artist, Louisville, Kentucky 2014

If you’d like to donate directly to Gary Crook’s ALS Fund, please go to: http://www.gofundme.com/60j52k