Zachary Cole

English 1101 132

Prof. Karin Evans
Short Memoir
Feb. 8, 2016
Gone
February 23, 2015. The day that changed how my life was going to be forever, but Im not
going to start there. Im going to start my story from just a little over a year before that date in roughly
early January on 2014.
I didnt have much of a childhood, always had to deal with my mom and biological dad
fighting. The late nights sucked. Then they got divorced and we moved here to Illinois. In 2008 my
mom met Rath. Rath Baxter Green. This is who I consider
my real dad/father. He was more of a father to me than my
biological dad. Fast forward to November 11, 2011, my mom
(Heather A. Green) and he get married. After three good
years of marriage, the unthinkable happens. Rath is
diagnosed with cancer. From that day on, my life was never
the same.

Mom and Raths Wedding Reception, November

11, 2011

He was first diagnosed in early January of 2014 and had started treatment of Chemical
Therapy within a month. The diagnosis was Stage 3, Esophageal Cancer, with Mets. (Metastasis)
The cancer was located directly at the bottom of the esophagus and had spread to the lining of the
stomach rendering the cancer inoperable. The year seemed to drag on and on. What seemed like
was taking forever, was only happening in a short amount of time. There came a point at which the
treatment was working so well, that it actually caused more bad than good. He had a stent in his
throat so that he could still eat and drink, but it was also there to allow the doctors to administer the
chemo therapy directly to the cancer. The treatment had shrunk to tumors so much that the stent
was beginning to slip into the stomach. So they (the doctors) decided to operate and try to replace
the stent to its original position. It didnt work..

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Doing this surgery caused Rath to have an abdominal hernia

causing him more pain than I could even imagine. He was taking
maximum dosage of Dalaudid, which in pill form is nearly five times the
strength of Morphine, and Norco which is nearly just as strong. Over the
course of a few months, I watched someone who once weighed twohundred and eighty pounds drop to the weight of roughly one-hundred
and fifty pounds in just under four months. After the failed surgery, the
doctors began to do both chemical and radiological treatment. The
aftermath of the radiation was terrible. This is the point where he began
to lose most of his weight, also mainly due to the amount of pain he was

Rath on July 4, 2012

in.
Now lets fast forward to February 20, 2015. I had just gotten my
wisdom teeth pulled, and that was the beginning to maybe one of the worst
weekends in my entire life. I couldnt drive so thankfully Allison (my
girlfriend) had no issue driving me and my brother Casey to the hospital to
see him, he had been admitted due to issues with his breathing. We were
laughing, joking, and having a merry old time. I could tell there wasnt
something right about how he was acting, how he was breathing. When
the time came to leave, he was sitting up talking to us and eating his

Easter April 20, 2014

dinner. As we were leaving, he said You guys get home safely, I love you guys. Those were the
last words I ever heard him say to me.
Through the night his conditioned worsened and he became comatose. Over the next few
days, he became worse and worse. I know this may sound terrible, but at the time I wished that he
wouldve gone before he did to save himself from the pain and suffering that he had endured those
few days. Sunday February 22, 2015. Rath had become completely unresponsive to external stimuli,
and on Monday February 23, 2015, Rath Baxter Green passed from this earth.

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Now I know that this little memoir may seem extremely sad and believe me its been hard for
me to write, but I just felt that being its almost been a year since his passing, this memoir should be
dedicated to him.

For Rath Baxter Green 10/28/1964 2/23/2015