Bob Schnell
March 22, 1940 - November 15, 2010
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| Three generations of sons - Bob, Jason, and Ethan |
Bob is the father of my cousin's husband.
Jason shared these words about his dad:
Jason shared these words about his dad:
It was the winter of 2010, around the time of my son’s birthday. Our family had gotten together a couple of times after the beginning of the year for birthday parties and similar events. Nothing really was different that year, except we noticed Dad had what seemed to be a never-ending cold. And it seemed to be getting worse. We noticed a lot of congestion and a "drop-you-to-your-knees" type of cough. So, as you do when someone you love is sick, we hounded Dad to go to the doctor and get something to make himself feel better. And he did… a couple of times. He came back from the doctor with a few different remedies. Each time a bit stronger than the last. Until one time he came back and said the doctor took some x-rays and found some sort of mass in his lung. "We shouldn’t worry though, it’s likely nothing, but just to make sure they are going to do a PET scan and possibly a biopsy, depending on what they find," he said. By May we knew that Dad had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Soon thereafter, we - as a family - started taking turns going with Dad to doctor visits to gather and try to retain as much information as we could. We were told that Dad would receive a very aggressive series of treatments. Then, what was just a series of informational meetings with different doctors, soon became a week-by-week emotional roller coaster of chemo and radiation treatments. All was going well. Each round of treatment showed shrinkage and progress.
Once his treatments were over and there was a bit of a lull, we decided we should take a small family trip to the Dells. It was now the fall of 2010, just a few months after the diagnosis. This was an opportunity for us to gather our composure, reflect, and celebrate my niece’s birthday. We had a great time. We rented a cabin large enough for all of us and played games, went mini-golfing, took a lot of pictures, told jokes, and tried to not think about Dad’s cancer.
A couple weeks after our get-away, we took Dad to the hospital. He was having a hard time breathing and his body’s oxygen level was very low. He had developed scar tissue from the radiation. He spent a few weeks in the hospital battling to breathe. Each of us took turns spending the night with him at the hospital. He didn’t come home with us. He passed on November 15th around 7:00pm - shortly after I got to the hospital. He was surrounded by family.
In honor of the number of children and grandchildren in his life, Bob will represent Mile 13.
In honor of the number of children and grandchildren in his life, Bob will represent Mile 13.
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