Today, I asked Ed if he wished to talk about his childhood, his life on the farm as a child. Ed is a master story-teller, and the family farm has shaped his life as well as his illness. His family is so much a part of his brain cancer.
Ed feels better than Sunday, when we all thought he was leaving us, he is clearer and more comfortable. Still the toll of the cancer is evident, even in our videos. He has less strength and works hard to keep his energy up.
He cannot move any part of his left side, and needs help to sit up in any way. He is beginning to struggle with memory and needs frequent rest. Still, his gift for story telling remains and he reminds me all the time of what we are losing as a culture and a country as the family farms recede and will soon be gone.
Ed’s childhood was harsh and demanding by today’s standards, yet Ed believed it was a valuable learning experience for him. He tried to raise his children in the same way, and he is very happy with how they turned out.
When I listen to him tell his stories, I realize how desperate we are in our time to keep our children from having problems, in Ed’s early life, he was left alone to solve the problems of life. He says it has benefited him every day of his life, even today.
This is the seventh in our series of conversations about his life, and I thought it might be valuable to go backwards instead of forward. We took a break from
Jon thank you for these videos. The ability to chronicle one’s life is more important than we realize. I often comment that I wish I had asked my family members more questions while they were alive. Unfortunately when you’re young you don’t think to do that and now I can’t. You are such a good interviewer and partly because you are a good listener and partly because you care and mostly because you know how to generate good conversation. His family will treasure these interviews as you will.