Today, I Want To Talk About My Brother
He enter this earth on July 29, 1958, and left it on October, 20, 1999. He taught me unconditional love without always knowing it himself.
I still remember the day he called me and said, “You will never guess what just happed?”
“You’re a guest alien on Star Trek,” I guested without a pause. I was right. He was so mad that I had guessed right. I don’t know how I knew; I just knew. Maybe it was because of how he asked it. Maybe it was because he had always been the other half of myself. We’d both had been fans of Star Trek all our lives, and he knew being a guest alien on Star Trek was one of my goals.
His episode is the Star Trek Voyager, Episode Unity. I keep it on my DVR so I can occasionally watch him. I’ve been looking for his MADtv episode, the one where he played Christ on trial. He was so funny. If anyone can send me the episode number, I’d be grateful.
(A good friend did send me a link to one of his MADtv episodes after I posted this article. Not the one one I wanted, ((still look for the one where Christ’s on Trial)) but one even better. Here it is, and yes, he’s playing Christ at Christ's Birthday Party.)
I miss my brother. The last time I saw him, I handed him a Dove Bar and told him, “I’ll see you when you at back.”
He never came back, but he did achieve many of his goals, and I don’t think he ever regretted anything. I suppose that’s a good life. I know that his life was full of love, much of which he poured onto me.
Here are the words he left to me:
No one can tell you why cancer hits some people and not others. I have come to realize it’s a little like Russian roulette. Everyone has a bullet, but it just happens to be a bit indiscriminate as to when it will come out of the chamber. In reality, we have a whole lot of bullets going off all of the time. It’s just that in most people the immune system is a great bullet proof vest. I am one of the lucky ones. I say lucky, and I truly mean it because I am a very different person today than I was back on that lovely day of diagnosis and would not want to go back for anything. Now don’t get me wrong, I am searching desperately for a new vest but so far the body armor has been out of stock. The fact that I got the big “C” however, and the journey I have made as a person both before diagnosis and after, have been down right amazing. It has made me who I am today and that, dear friends, is what I would not change for anything…
Donald William Sager, The Comedy of Cancer, 1999. (Never finished)
I hope that you find such strength in your life.
His MADTv episode: Happy Birthday Jesus.
He had had his VW van in every state in the union including Hawaii and Alaska. The only exception was New Mexico. He wanted to finish his journey. I quit my job; took my credit cards and Nancy and I few to LA. We loaded Don in the van and set off. Merlin, the van, got stuck in Phoenix. Repairs took 3 days. The thing I remember about the trip was stopping at a little park built around a desert stream. We wheeled him to a view point overlooking the stream. The golden aspen glowerd along the waterʻʻs edge. The water sparkled in the early morning sunlight. Don sat in his chair and enjoyed the view for a half an hour .As I pushed him back to the car he hollered at me to stop. He had spotted a spider web sparkling with dew. We sat and watched momma spider repair her web for another half hour..We crossed the New Mexico boarder and found a Motel in the first town we came to. We sat in the motel parking lot and watched the desert sunset. When it grew dark he wanted to enjoy the motel swimming pool. He gloried in the fact that the water suported him and he coud walk. He wanted to swim but coudnʻt I pulled him around the pool as I had when he was two years old. The last thing I remember was Don doing pushups of the poo adder. He died that night.
Thank you Debbie Larson for sending me this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0OnZ3_2WUk