Lee Alan Russell, Father, Brother, Friend

Dad died today at 12:32pm surrounded by family that loved him. He was peaceful and comfortable. All that were there could feel the presence of the Spirit of God and knew that the veil was thin. There were parents and others ready to greet him on the other side. We all shared tears, hugs, laughter, more tears and hugs, and said thanks for all he had done for us. We will miss him very much but we know that if we live as Jesus lived, we will see him again. The atonement of Christ has made it possible for us to live again and return to the presense of our Father in Heaven. Dad is up there building Mom a house and making a place to put the camper. We will be moving Mom home tomorrow. Thank you all again for the support, love, and generosity. Feel free to leave comments for Mom here.
Mark

We are near the end.

It has been a long day for all of us today with looming news that we new in our hearts was not going to be what we wanted to hear. Dad is not going to recover. His CT today showed that the pneumonia has gotten much worse and will end his life in the next few days. He still recognized me today and said my name, but most of the time he can not respond to questions or prompts. His kidneys and liver are failing also. Dr. Rifkin has done a great job helping us to prepare for and deal with this. His care is going focus now on making him comfortable. When we got the news, we all shared tears and hugs but are somewhat better now. We are all sort of lost as to what we need to do and where we should be. Dad always gave us direction and a job to do. He taught us well and I suppose it will not take us long to sort it all out for ourselves. I'm going to miss you Dad!
Love,
Mark

Dad's Health Updates as of 8/25/08

This will provide a front page location for new health updates and comments.

Hi everybody. I don't have much to add today, but we got a card in the mail from Mom and I thought I'd share the art work that was on the front. For some reason it reminds of when I was a little kid and we would swing on the swingset outside. I don't think I can remember a time when Mom wasn't working on one project or another. She is a good artist. I wish I had more of her artwork. And I wish I could have got a little more of the artist genes. Unfortunately those genes avoided me like the plague.

Looking forward to reading your posts!

Hi everybody! Here is the note that Cherilyn put in the Daily Times. Mark Dunn called while we were in Denver so some people have recieved a news letter Cherilyn sent out. Thanks for all the work Cherilyn!

Calls and letters are most apreciated, so don't hesitate to drop him a line as Dad is feeling well and apreciates the visit.

Mom also heard from Uncle Ray who wanted us all to know that he was the first to be "trained" by the infamous iron crutches. I'm sure that he never provoked her though!

Mom and Dad are doing well in Denver. Dad has finished his 3rd round of Chemo and is feeling very well. He went to the museum with Dave, Erin and company last week. They have rented out their house for the winter to provide for some of the expense of living in Denver. The Tenants come highly recomended and seem very nice. They were lucky to find such good people. Darrin and I spent some time shuffling some stuff around. Mom and Dad seemed tickled to sleep on their own bed. Most of their valuables are in storage now and the house is almost ready to rent. Rachel and Shonda have spent many hours boxing things up. When we backed the trailer up to the garage all the stuff we needed to take was in a pile by the door. It made it so much easier hauling the stuff since it was all in boxes. Joe and Annie worked with Rachel at the house putting the final odds and ends into boxes. Mark is coming next week to work on the garage. It won't take much at all to finish getting the house ready.

Again, a great big thanks to everyone for all the help, thoughts and prayers. It means the world to all of us but especially Mom and Dad. I recalled today a conversation I had with Barry Bluth where he told me that a prayer wasn't offered in their ward that Dad wasn't mentioned. These feelings were reiterated again today as I visited with members of the bishopric. We are so thankfull for the love and concern expressed by the ward members.

The post we were adding health updates to has moved to a back page of the blog but can be accessed by clicking the link that says "older posts". Any new health updates can be added as comments to this post. That way they'll be closer to the top.

New Blog Settings, No More Logging In Required

I was able to change the settings on the blog so that no one has to log in any more to leave comments. I was unable to get it to show the most recent comments at the top though, sorry. If anyone knows how to do that let me know.

Rawlins Police Department

This post is dedicated to all of the wonderful people at the RPD that have been so good to my Dad. This Is your spot so you don't have to sort through all the mushy family stuff to get down to business or whatever else you would like to do. It has been important to my Dad that he have a good place to communicate with you. Thank you so much for all you have done and are doing for my parents.