I remember 25 years ago today

On this date in 1996, my father went to our family doctor and received a diagnosis of pneumonia.  It was the beginning of his seventeen year fight with a disease called BOOP.  For this disease, about 70% of the people who have it respond well to steroid treatment and are better after four months.  My father was a seemingly healthy 42-year-old man when he went to the doctor that day.  Even with the BOOP diagnosis, he should have been fine by Christmas.  Instead, my dad literally never had a normal day of breathing again.  The doctors never knew what caused it, which is typical.  Although it is a rare disease, two other people living within two blocks of my parents also developed the disease, which has always made us wonder about an environmental link.  I also knew someone in our former town whose father had the disease.  All of those men were much older when it developed.  My father once told me his pulmonologist told him he was the longest living person with his chronic form of the disease.  We assume it was because he was diagnosed so incredibly young.  He was determined each and every day to enjoy what he could, no matter how he felt.  My dad was truly an amazing man.

It's kind of odd that I remember this day so very vividly, considering at the time we had no way of knowing how serious the illness was.  My brain though, made an indelible image of him on the back porch as I got home from work.  I'm so grateful for any memory that involves my dad.