Memories of Joe by John Warmbrodt
I am Joe's uncle, John Warmbrodt, from near St. Louis, Missouri. I can remember that Joe was my parents' first grandchild. My parents, as I remember, were in Florida at the time of his birth in Columbia, Missouri, and they hurried back quickly so they could see their first grandchild. Joe's grandparents and parents, as well as extended family, are excellent parents who greatly love their children, and Joe was most precious to them. Joe was extremely intelligent at a very early age. I have a picture of Joe as a baby crawling on the front lawn of his grandparents' house, with me chasing after him. Unfortunately, when my brother, Bob, graduated with his masters degree in geology from the University of Missouri, he had to move away to get a good job, and over the years I saw Bob, Chris, Joe, and Tom only occasionally. Joe's grandparents were distraught when they moved to Texas, but there was consolation that they could go and visit them frequently, since they loved to travel. At the time of Joe's diagnosis, first of crohns disease, and later of ulcerative colitis, Joe's grandpa had already passed away. The diagnosis was hard on our whole family, and Joe's whole family. Everyone was hopeful that Joe had won the battle against ulcerative colitis when he had his colon removed. Joe was the author of "Colon Wars", a blog on the internet about his battle with ulcerative colitis and his colectomy. He is admirable for writing this, and trying to help others. We were saddened a year and a half or so ago when Joe had liver problems, pancreatitis, and kidney failure. Again, he fought and won this battle, bravely. The diagnosis of liver cancer several months ago was horrific to everyone involved, but Joe fought on, telling my daughter, his cousin, just 15 days before he passed away, that he's not going to die. My daughter, Jeannie, and I visited Joe then, and my cousin, Carol, who knows Joe was there in the hospice in Austin visiting, too. Joe played the piano for us for a good 20 to 30 minutes, and it was the most inspiring thing I have seen in my 58 years of life. Joe had a bag of pain medicine hooked up to a tube going into a blood vessel in his chest, and he was playing the most beautiful music for us. Afterwards, Joe said he was going to play a little longer every day, to help his recovery. I was so sad to fly back to St. Louis, since I knew his diagnosis was terminal liver cancer, which kills quickly, and is one of the most painful things to have. Remembering my parents and grandparents, though, I could see in Joe many of the great qualities that had been passed down to Joe, and that Joe had expanded on. Seeing the many friends who were visiting Joe at the Hospice, and the devotion of Joe's brother and his wife, Julie, as well as Joe's wife, Jenn and her parents, and my brother, Bob, and his wife, Chris, I knew that Joe had a good support system, and that made me feel much better. I heard that Joe's actual time of death was inspiring, too, which fits with the pattern of Joe. Joe can be truly remembered as a great man.