“Gone too soon”, we’ve heard it said time and time again, but I guess cliches are cliches for a reason. When you have a person that you loved so much and that made a profound and positive impact on your life taken from you so early that their memory is hazy in your mind, “gone too soon” is an appropriate sentiment I guess.

My uncle wasn’t a perfect man. His myriad of transgressions began way before I was born, but he was a loving man, and he loved me. He taught me how to play strategy games and always encouraged me to think critically but to have fun doing it. Looking back, I know that it wasn’t always a convenient time to play with me. I couldn’t tell you what was specifically happening with him then, but I can remember the look in his eyes conveyed a look of being tired, weary from a hard life lived and a battle I didn’t even know he was fighting.

He eventually lost that battle, and closed his weary eyes to take a well needed rest. I know it sounds silly in a way, but I now know the technical term for what took my uncle. It was a bloodborne pathogen. 

I’ve lost several relatives (including my uncle) to disease. Disease is a merciless combatant. It is no respecter of persons and takes the child and the old alike. I have felt the sting of loss caused by disease too many times to consider it something to mess around with. We owe it to ourselves, our families, and our communities to do everything we can to take this fight seriously.

Take it from a grown man who was once a little boy who would have given anything to play Chess just one more time with the person he loved . This matter is truly a matter of life or death.

Scott Dozier, Clean & Pristine training