Not sure if any of y'all saw this news on Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer Terribly sad and hopefully he will be able to beat it but the odds don't sound good. Just wanted to post this for those that hadn't seen it. If you're a Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, etc. say a prayer for one of the nicest dudes in the Basketball(and sports) journalism world, and if you're atheist, agnostic, etc., just send some good vibes and heed his words. This site below is updated by his Mother in law I believe and it has pics of him, his wife and his one year old son. https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jonathantjarks
woahh! What terrible news! And sarcoma too..horrible I am listening to his podcasts here and then and I like his work. Praying that he will have a full recovery
I'm almost in tears here reading that story. It's crazy how life can just turn on you in an instant. All my positive vibes are sent to this gentleman. I hope life has mercy on him, he has young kids for goodness sakes.
Wow, I'm not a praying person but I can empathize with anyone struggling. That's a cold delivery of life that man was given. Here's to holding out hope.
[…] Being a dad has been the greatest joy of my life. I was never someone who debated about whether or not to have a family. It’s something that I had wanted ever since I was a kid. I wanted what I didn’t have. My dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when I was 6. Most people know Parkinson’s from Muhammad Ali or Michael J. Fox and the shaking they see. But that’s only the beginning. Parkinson’s gradually robs you of your ability to control your body. My dad went from needing a cane to walk to a back brace and then a walker and finally a wheelchair. Things really went south after he had open heart surgery. His body never recovered. He had to take so much medicine that it became hard to talk. He was there but he was no longer there. I was 12. That’s the age when your parents go from authority figures to actual people. That never happened for me and my dad. We never got to know each other. What did he like doing? What were his experiences growing up? What were his goals in life? And there’s the simpler stuff too. How do you tie a tie? Or grill a burger? Or fix a car? I had to figure it all out on my own. Now it looks like my son might have to do the same. It was the one thing that I never wanted for him. […] I wish I could say that getting diagnosed with cancer has brought me closer to God. That my faith is stronger than ever before and that it has comforted me through these tough times. I have read plenty of stories like that. But that’s not really how it has worked for me. I want to believe in a miracle. There have been people with stage IV sarcomas whose tumors never came back. No one knows why. Some things are still beyond the knowledge of medical science. I asked my doctor if I could be one of those people. He replied, “I am not the one who decides those things.” I believe in a God who does. But I also know that He has chosen not to heal me. At least not yet. And that hurts. The only thing I can say is that there was never a promise that it would be any other way. I think about Terrence Clarke sometimes when I start to feel sorry for myself. He was a Kentucky basketball player who died in a car accident the same week I was diagnosed with cancer. He was coming from a workout. He would have been drafted in a few months. There’s a Bible passage from Jesus’s brother that comes to mind: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (James 4:13-16) So where does that leave us, the little mists? There are some things from the Bible that I have been leaning on over the past year: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this. To look after orphans and widows in their distress.” —James 1:27 “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” —Isaiah 1:17 “You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.” —Exodus 22:22 There are hundreds of verses like that. I have already told some of my friends: When I see you in heaven, there’s only one thing I’m going to ask—Were you good to my son and my wife? Were you there for them? Does my son know you? I don’t want Jackson to have the same childhood that I did. I want him to wonder why his dad’s friends always come over and shoot hoops with him. Why they always invite him to their houses. Why there are so many of them at his games. I hope that he gets sick of them. One thing I have learned from this experience is that you can’t worry about things that you can’t control. I can’t control what will happen to me. I don’t know how long I will be there for my son. All I can do is make the most of the time that I have left. That means investing in other people so they can be there for him.
Damn it. Sitting at my desk at my office and someone turned on the mist machine. I was hoping this wasn't going to be the update.
Used to interact with him on other boards, sorry to hear that definitely, prayers to him and his family.
Life can definitely seem unfair. My thoughts and positive vibes to his loved ones, especially his child and wife.
The photos on that last post on the caringbridge site just about killed me. Just incredibly sad and painful but I'm also very thankful that he and his wife were so open in sharing their story as it progressed. Give your loved ones a hug because living is a precious experience.