Death Be Not Proud ???????????????whatcha think?

Death Be Not Proud

Everyone wants to be remembered, for what they accomplished, how people adored them, how everyone longed to be them, and how they never, ever wanted to be forgotten. John 鈥樷€?Johnny鈥欌€?Gunther Jr. will always be remembered and be close to every person who ever read his story. Johnny didn鈥檛 invent a cure for the common cold or AIDS, he didn鈥檛 get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, save a classroom full of children from a burning building, beat a world record, or live to be a 150, in fact he didn鈥檛 even live to see his 18th birthday. Johnny was a person who truly cared for others before himself, had extraordinary intelligence, a heart of pure gold, he was level-headed, charming and beautiful. Johnny was diagnosed with a brain tumor on April 25th 1945 at the age of 16, he fought harder than anyone has ever, until the very end and touched everyone around him in the hardest of times. Johnny died June 30th 1947, he was 17 years old, he would have attended Harvard University the following autumn.
Johnny was born in Paris on November 4th 1929 to Frances and John Gunther. When he was four-months old they moved to Vienna, then when he was six they spent a half a year in London and finally moved back to the USA. Johnny loved science, it was his true passion. He attended Deerfield Academy and he was loved by all his schoolmates and teachers.
There was something about Johnny that made people love him, his presence, his grace, his love of the pure and good.
Johnny began his treatment shortly after being diagnosed. He had been complaining of severe migraines and a stiff neck. He had spinal taps, tests, his first brain operation where they removed part of his tumor, it was successful with the luck that it was near the surface of his brain. He even, shortly after his operation, during recovery wrote a letter to Albert Einstein and received a reply.
On May 28th his condition went downhill, he fainted in the bathroom. He was faced with the dreadful realization that he could become blind or paralyzed, luckily these dreadful conditions were not bestowed upon him. He began his X-Ray treatment because his tumor was 鈥樷€檜ndergoing gliobastomas transformation鈥欌€?which is very dangerous. He was discharged from the hospital on June 1st thought he had to make frequent visits there for treatments. Nothing seemed to be working, so the family tried the Gerson diet and it really had amazing results with Johnny! They really believed Johnny was going to pull through, but Johnny began to slip the last few months of his life, his blood count was going down, his was becoming weaker and weaker, and his body was failing him, it had had enough, Johnny died 11:02 pm, on June 30th 1947, he was 17, after a long grueling illness that he fought without a single ounce of fear, he died like a man, with full dignity. Like A Thief Death Took Him鈥?br>

"I hope we can love Johnny more... and leave behind us, as he did, the love of love, the love of life."
- John Gunther, Death Be Not Proud

Unbeliever鈥檚 Prayer
Almighty God
Forgive me for my agnosticism;
For I shall try to be gentle not cynical,
nor a bad influence.

And O!
if Thou art truly in the heavens,
accept my gratitude
for all Thy gifts
and I shall try
to fight the good fight. Amen.

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