Kevin Kim might appreciate a visit . . .

Kevin's Mom

June 12, 2007

In stonger days . . .

. . . during Kevin's book signings.

(Image from Big Hominid)

Some of my readers will already know of Kevin Kim from his days teaching English in Korea and blogging in his inimitably salty way as The Big Hominid. He took a break from that routine last fall (2008) to return to America and begin a long, hard walk from the West Coast across the States and write about the walk in a blog billed as Kevin's Walk, his intention being to report on the religious lives of the various people whom he met along his way toward the East Coast.

That walk has recently taken him onto a different, untoward path, one harder to tread.

Kevin's mother has fallen ill with GBM (glioblastoma multiforme), an aggressive type of neural cancer . . . and the prognosis is not good at all, as you can determine from the Wikipedia link. Only a couple of months ago, she was apparently as healthy as in the photo above, but very recently, Kevin, his brother Sean, and their father had to work in concert to help her onto her couch, which Kevin describes:

We got Mom onto her couch, settling her into her favorite corner. She slumped there, shoulders sagged, staring at the floor and panting from the experience of being awkwardly carried, obviously thinking hard about something. Finally, after a few quiet moments, it came out:

"It's pretty bad, isn't it?"

I could have broken down then, I admit, but I was buoyed by this evidence that Mom was starting to grasp her own situation. I feigned ignorance:

"What's pretty bad, Mom?"

Mom didn't look up from her contemplation of the floor.

"All of it."

I sat down next to Mom and took her hand.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad." I squeezed her fingers. "But that's what we're here for."

Whether you know Kevin or not, you might think about going to Kevin's Walk and leaving a word or two of encouragement on one or another of his recently posted entries.