Endless Knots

The book of life

At the very tail end of this day of atonement, a small montage of four, two in my news, two in yours, who died in the past few months of pancreatic cancer.

Clockwise from upper left, my dear friend, Donna Bannon from my hometown, who lived only 25 days post-diagnosis; my darling husband, Jeff Stamps, who lived 13 months post-diagnosis with great equanimity and dignity; Nobel laureate Ralph Steinman, who lived 4.5 years post-diagnosis and was experimenting on himself with a vaccine that held potential to ameliorate this horrid disease; and, of course, the most famous of all, Steve Jobs, who lived 7 years post-diagnosis with the most rare form of the disease, which is sometimes curable.

Donations in their memories to Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

And today, Jeff Stamps's obit in The Boston Globe

Photo by Ray Elman

Bryan Marquard's very thoughtful and long obit of Jeff Stamps is in today's paper. Other than the headline, which is not precisely right -- Jeff wrote books about improving organizations not computers (though they inevitably turned out better too for his work) -- this is just a beautiful piece, capturing so much of his mission, rare intellect, philosophy, and approach to death. Today is his funeral. Please keep him close as we spend this morning writing his name in the sky. 10:30, First Unitarian Society of Newton, 1326 Washington Street, West Newton.

Thank you, Bryan, for capturing the subtleties and complexities of this one-of-a-kind thinker, skier, motorcyclist, rollerblader, windsurfer, firebuilding, trail-runner, meditator, writer, husband, father, and "Dadpa," who got up and walked every day until the one on which his life ended. As his old friend Frank White will say in his remarks this morning, Jeff was a "teaching," not a teacher.

 

Memorial Service for Jeff Stamps

 

Memorial service for Jeff Stamps

10:30 AM, Wed, June 15, 2011

First Unitarian Society of Newton
1326 Washington Street, West Newton, MA

Burial immediately following at Newton Cemetery

In lieu of flowers, donations please:
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network or Tibet House

 

Jeff at "Five Corners" in Paine Woods
Weston, MA, March 20, 2011
A spot he named and always marked -- where five paths converge

Photo by Jay Albany, our son-in-law

 

Jeffrey Spaulding Stamps ~ March 18, 1944-June 11, 2011

 

Jeff off-piste at Corchevel, France

60th Birthday Ski Trip

 

 

 

One year ago today

This post is simply to mark this one-year anniversary in our family history.

For the record

Jeff Stamps, April 7, 2011, Skylight Trail, black diamond, Cannon Mountain. Trail map included FYI.

And now for the movie...

 

 

 

 

Downhill with Jeff, Month 11

On St. Patrick's, the day before his 67th birthday, Jeff Stamps swerves downhill again in his White Mountains. (View larger on YouTube.)

 

 

 

 

YouTube suggests these tags: jumping + crash accident + agility + off-road vehicles + stunts.

 

 

"Cannon day. Cold"

Above, text message received today from Jeff Stamps at his favorite place to ski, Cannon Mountain. For those following the story, this is month 10, post-diagnosis. FYI, he drove up and back in one day, 300 miles round-trip.

Stem cells and pancreatic cancer

So to be very clear first: I am not a scientist, not a medical researcher, don't really follow the field of stem cell research but...a response (on Facebook from "a friend of a friend) to my post yesterday prompts me to throw this info out there.

Now three times in the past few weeks, info has come across the screen about the role of stem cells in pancreatic cancer. Here's the earliest article I can quickly find about this promising area of research.

As one researcher developing a new compound to "stem" the spread of pancreatic cancer put it: "There are bad cancer cells and there are really bad cancer cells." Those really bad ones, it turns out, are stem cells. Traditional chemo, he explained, goes after the bad cancer cells but cannot typically do anything about the really bad ones.

Light goes on in the heads of cancer researchers. Result is that at least three labs that I've heard about are now developing compounds to go after these stem cells. In one case, the trial is not directed at pancreatic cancer specifically but at solid tumors (not blood cancers, for example).

This is really promising research. Should anything understandable to the common person (me) surface, I'll post it. Meanwhile, google "cancer stem cells and pancreatic cancer" and see this short report.

 

Down the slopes with Stage IV pancreatic cancer

There's an image we hold of people with terminal diagnoses, probably several images, frail, incapacitated, immobile. Stage IV cancer manifests many ways, and differently on different days. Here, one view of such a patient, Jeff Stamps, taken Saturday, Dec 11. I know this is not the norm; I offer it as testimony to what the human form can achieve, regardless of its "diagnosis" or "prognosis" ...