Uncle Bob had right approach with his donation to medical research
July 7th, 2008, 1:43 pm · 1 Comment · posted by dbrannan
I attended the funeral of my uncle Bob Graner last week and in my quick trip there was able to connect with several relatives.
My cousin, Mike Graner, Bob’s son, was there and he gave an eloquent summary of his dad’s life at the end. He is now a medical researcher in the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina. He talked about fishing and some of the lessons he learned from his father out in the boat. It brought me back to memories of my own dad and tossing the line in the water from creeks and lakes.
It may sound odd, but now some of my best memories come from those trips to the fishing holes.
Mike Graner talked a little about his father, Bob, donating his body to medical science. I didn’t know of the donation until he died.
I don’t know if part of Bob’s reason for donating his body to science came from his son, Mike, having insulin-dependent diabetes from a very early age or not, or his own ailments that he battled in his 77 years of living. Or if the decision came from Mike’s work in his professional career as a researcher.
I always admired Bob Graner. He was a quiet man, not an ultra-talkative uncle, but he would always seemingly open up to me. Maybe it was the reporter in me, but I always able to get my relatives to carry on a detailed conversation.
Bob Graner was always working at track meets, basketball games and coaching. Those memories will be what I remember about him the most. As far as admiring him, I don’t think I have ever thought more of him than on the day of his funeral, not seeing his body because it had been donated to medical science to further research.
We need to think more carefully about the importance of medical research. We have so many ailments that we need to address and without research, we will never discover cures.
If you have a similar story, send an e-mail to me that I can post in my blog.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
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