Inspiration through the roof
Published 11:48 pm Sunday, July 29, 2007
If we’re lucky, we meet someone who touches our hearts. We meet someone so inspirational that it makes us examine our own lives. How do we treat people? Do we make sure the people close to us know we love them?
I’m lucky enough to have met the Piland family. Before today, I knew Dave Piland from his work as PA announcer at Evergreen Speedway and with the Everett Silvertips. I wrote a column late in 2005 about his battle with a particularly nasty strain of brain cancer and again recently, about a charity golf tournament whose earnings will largely go to the Piland family.
I just spent an hour with Dave, his wife, Lisa and daighters Crissy and Katie. Sons T.J. and Greg were elsewhere, unfortunately for me. I’ll cherish that hour the rest of my life. For someone given two to four weeks to live, Dave has more life in him than anyone I can think of. If what they say is right, that cancer patients have good days and bad days, I was lucky enough to see him on a spectacular day.
David has lost none of his quick wit. My backside is still stinging from more than a few well-chosen barbs he slung my way. We told stories. We laughed. It felt good. It felt natural. We talked about the way so many of you have touched their lives with a meal (KFC’s mashed potatoes and gravy is a huge favorite these days), a visit, a piece of help around the house. Kudos to you who converted their downstairs into a full-fledged living quarters, so Dave can avoid going up and down stairs and the family can have dinner together. There have been so many of you who have opened your hearts to them. They feel your love. They love you in return.
Lisa Piland is even more beautiful inside than she is outside, which is saying something. Theirs is a special love that I won’t soon forget, one that is beautifully obvious the first minute you spend with them. They’ll tell you that they are the most fortunate people around because of the innumerable acts of kindness of friends, family and people they’ve never even met. But we’re the lucky ones. We have them in our lives.
As I left, we said our good-byes. Lisa led me to the door, and Dave called out from his bed, “Love ya, buddy.” I said something lame, like, “Take care, buddy.”
What I should have said is what I’ll say now. I love you, Dave and Lisa and family. Thanks for letting me invade your space for a while. It was a great, great day.
