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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > June > 21 > Entry
Father’s Day lessons from Blake LaForce
Mark LaForce has a Father’s Day message for everyone:
“Enjoy the moment, reflect on all the good things — all the blessings — you have, take nothing forgranted and, most of all, be proud of your kids.”
The Butler Township father is proving you can do just that even in the most heart-wrenching situations.
This morning, June 21, he will be in the Intensive Care Unit at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, leaning over the bed of his 18-year-old son Blake, who is 19 months into a rugged medical journey — that began with leukemia and a successful bone marrow transplant, then was detoured by an off-the-charts infection of the central nervous system and finally a pulmonary hemorrhage — that no family would want to travel.
And yet the way Mark, his wife Linda, their other two children and especially Blake himself — who was a quiet, but popular standout athlete at Vandalia Butler High — have done it, has drawn people to them from around the world.
Although Blake now can’t eat, drink, walk or talk on his own — “he’s like a full-grown chicken back inside the egg,” Mark said — that doesn’t mean he isn’t communicating with his parents.
When Mark gets face to face with Blake, he said his son “talks to him” through his eye movements, which, sometimes, are accompanied by a tear.
Mark chronicles all this in a compelling daily web journal — www.CaringBridge.org/visit/blakelaforce/journal — that has drawn over 108,000 people who are following the day-to-day battle.
I wrote more extensively about Mark and Blake in today’s newspaper and that column can also be found here on the sports web page.
As Mark told me just before we parted the other day: “Our son is teaching not just us, but a lot of other people what it means to fight, to have faith and to hold on to what you love.”
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Comments
By Jean Gillott
June 24, 2009 5:58 PM | Link to this
I miss seeing all of you. You all are in prayers every night and day. Please take care of one another and tell Blake
By Kristina Onder
June 21, 2009 4:45 PM | Link to this
I am moved by this story. I hope you will forward this to Mark. Not only is he in my prayers, but he is in my heart. I don’t have a son in intensive care, but I know what it is like to suffer for an extended amount of time. I tried to adopt a little girl, and the birthmother turned out to be a fraud who accepted money from 4 couples. We spent 18 months, all our life savings, and all our energy to save this little girl. We won in the end, and all I can say is that it was worth the fight. I know what it is like to put your marriage on the line, your job, your faith, your sanity. It is worth it. God bless. Tina