Dear Friends,
There has been an overwhelming outpouring of love and encouragement from our community. Many have asked to send a card. Please feel free to use this address:
Mr. & Mrs. JJ & Kris Hanson
c/o Mr. Jim Hanson
PO Box 11
Yulan, NY 12792
Thanks very much for all your support.
I spoke to JJ this morning. He and Kris are very grateful to all of you. He expressed his hope that even this part of his story would be shared, if it might help others.
JJ, my dear friend, I didn’t realize till this morning that your saying – #canthurtsteel – was so much more than fighting to live. You had your dark moments of despair and feeling like a burden. You have expressed fear at your mortality, at what will become of Kris and the boys. But there are things that we have to strive for and hold onto with everything we’ve got. There are things that a disease and even death cannot break: Love, Hope, Justice, service of others, the Good. As you say, “Every single day is a gift, and you can’t let that go.” You spent the last few years living life to the full – fighting for others who might not have the supports you had in those dark moments. Your voice is not powerful because you’re strong, but rather, because you’re sick, weak. You cannot, however, hurt the steel of a person’s love. You know intimately that horrible disease can break a person, a whole family, even without assisted suicide on the books. In sharing your story, you want to share Hope, not merely in some false notion that everyone who fights can beat their disease – some may, some may not – but much more so, Hope in things that don’t break. You can’t hurt steel. Thank you for your service to our movement, your example of semper fidelis – always faithful – your friendship, and love.
Best,
Matt