“What does high risk mean?” Garth asked. His oncologist looked him in the eyes and responded… “You are going to die of this.” Garth is 44 years old and has been diagnosed with cancer three times since November 2011. Prostate cancer once. Kidney cancer twice. Although he appears healthy today, statistics say he has an 8% chance of living past 5 years.

Garth has one daughter named Emma. He has been writing napkin notes for Emma’s lunch box since she was in the second grade. They are just a few words of encouragement, but in the busyness of their separate days at work and school, it’s a moment when they can connect. It’s a moment when Garth knows she is thinking about him.

Garth may die, but he will not let Emma eat lunch without that note. This is his promise to write one napkin note for every day of class Emma has until she graduates from high school. To date, he has completed 740 notes. 86 to go.

This is a picture of Garth and Emma at a father/daughter superhero dance. They didn’t win because Jedi were “not considered superheroes.” Emma was mad and I’d be too. Jedi’s are definitely superheroes…

Please “share” to show your support for Garth’s dedication to his daughter. Garth has applied for treatment trials that may extend his life. Fight the good fight.

Garth was inspired to write to make this promise of 826 napkin notes after reading about because I said I would in an article in Spirit Magazine. 

You can see more of his napkin notes to Emma on www.facebook.com/napkinnotes.

Source: becauseisaidiwould.com

An Ohio motorcycle enthusiast’s family has carried out their father’s long-laid and elaborate funeral plans, that were 18 years in the making.

Billy Standley, 82, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, was buried Friday, embalmed atop his 1967 Harley Davidson and encased in a giant plexiglass casket.

A couple of hundred people turned up at the funeral which was held outside so all of Standley’s biker friends could attend, two even arriving riding their own motorcyles.

Standley, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, began his own funeral arrangements 18 years ago when he approached David Vernon of Vernon Funeral Homes with his quirky idea.

“At that time I didn’t know to take him seriously or not,” said Vernon, who realized as conversations progressed over several years that this was something “very important” to Standley.

“He gave it a lot of thought,” Vernon said. “He was a unique man — a man who spoke his mind and did things whether people liked it or not.”

The lengths Standley took to arrange his own funeral involved buying three burial plots next to his wife Lorna’s grave, which provided a space large enough to accommodate the large custom made concrete vault that would eventually hold the casket.

As for the casket itself, Standley built the see-though box with his two sons out of plexiglass, reinforced with steel and wood rods.

“Me and my brother built the casket five years ago and it’s been sitting in his garage waiting for him to die,” Pete Standley told ABC News.

After Billy Standley’s death on Sunday, five embalmers helped prepare and secure Standley atop his bike, dressing him in his well-worn leathers, white helmet and glasses.

He was secured to the $30,000 bike with the metal armour he had fabricated to wrap around his waist, which was mounted to a bracket that went down between the seats.

Before his final ride, Standley’s beloved custom-painted 1967 Electra Glide cruiser had taken him all around the country. The retired truck driver and former rodeo rider had travelled every state except Hawaii in his younger years, with many of those trips made on his motorcycle.

While Standley’s family said the burial might be unusual and even shocking to those witnessing it, they wanted to grant the last wish of the man who had told them he didn’t just want to ride to heaven, but wanted the world to witness him do it in a see-through casket.

“This was his wish and we granted him his final wish,” said Pete Standley. “He rode his motorcycle to the grave and he’s still riding it today.”

Biker Buried On Beloved Harley in Plexiglas Casket [via]