Dad's Art

Lest anyone think we were kidding about the packing for long road trips...

Our Dad

John LeGrande Avery died at his home in Provo on August 10, 2013, after an eight month battle with brain cancer.

John was born in Provo on October 7, 1942, to Floyd Faye and Sadie Hulet Avery. He is survived by his wife Pamela Cardon Avery, his eight sons and six daughters-in-law – Matt & Nicki, Brian & Chris, Danny & Staci, Peter, Andy & Sarah, Wes & Melissa, David & Jannet, and Alex – and 22 grandchildren. He is also survived by sisters Ara Jean Hiatt and Sue Swain, and brothers Barry and Con. He was preceded in death by one sister, Dena Joyce, and one brother, Chad.

John (or LeGrande or Bud) served two years as a missionary in New Zealand and continued to serve faithfully in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints his entire life in a variety of callings, most recently as an Executive Secretary in the Spanish Fork Young Single Adult Stake. He had a firm belief and understanding of the Boy Scout program as it related to the LDS Church. He influenced countless young men as a Boy Scout leader, helping many of them achieve the rank of Eagle - including his eight sons. He received many scouting awards including the Silver Beaver Award, one of the BSA’s highest honors. He loved making itineraries and lists and repacking cargo space prior to and during any outing involving a vehicle. He had a love-hate relationship with long road trips. Driving erratically fast (but amazingly avoiding any consequences) was his specialty.

Dad ‘s professional career was in Computer Engineering, but he preferred to spend his time in the outdoors hiking, fishing, camping, skiing, backpacking and bicycling.  He was skiing when symptoms of the cancer were first noticed. He was also a faithful BYU fan and enjoyed a long tradition of attending football and basketball games with his family.

John received wonderful care and attention from the staff of Horizon Home Health and Hospice for several months. We thank them all, along with his doctors Reichman, Gaufin, Clark and Rich.

Funeral services will be held on Friday, August 16, at 11:00 am at the LDS Chapel at 4056 North 650 East, Provo, Utah (the “Red Brick” building). A viewing will be held on Thursday, August 15, from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm and prior to funeral services from 10:00 am to 10:45 am at the same location.  Interment will be at the Orem Cemetery.

March

 Did you know that Dad skied again on a sunny day in March at Park City?

 Well, he did. Thanks to the National Ability Center, he was able to take a final run and feel the pure joy of carving a turn or two.

Also in March, we got to go down south again. It was not the usual roughin' it in the desert like he loved, but we rented a house and got into Zion. He got to watch his giant family enjoy nature like he taught us for years and years.

We love ya, Dad.

Basketball

Special thanks to Tom Holmoe who was very gracious to let us use his seats at tonight's BYU Basketball game.  Dad has always shared high praise for President Holmoe and we got to see his kindness first hand.

Dad would take us to a lot of BYU sporting events, and we've all shared some great memories at the Marriott Center.  We got to take it all in as BYU beat Utah State.  So thanks again for making it happen.  (Mom joined us a bit later at half time).

To update on other things, we've been doing the radiation and chemotherapy for about three weeks and dad's been doing very well with them.  He's been able to get around just fine with the walker and is in pretty good spirits.  He has a couple more weeks with this round, so we are still doing lots of activities, etc.  

It's been great to have a lot of visitors and we all love you for it.

United We Fight

Well, it's on! Dad finally started the big gun treatments today.

This is a fight!

The MRI two days ago revealed that the tumor is now bigger than it was before the surgery one month ago. Our dad is having significantly greater challenges than before. 

He knows that there are tons of people out there hoping, praying, thinking about him, and loving him.

He feels it, appreciates it, and probably loves you, too. 

Please keep it up. If you have 5 minutes to stop by, do it!

But maybe really keep it to 5 minutes or so.

Send a card. Bring a photo. Share a memory.

If you can't be here, write a comment below, we'll pass it on!

Here we are showing our dad support. 

Mom's picture should be the biggest here. (even though she didn't buzz her head:)

Strength
Hope

Happiness

Gratitude

Child-like faith

Skiing is fun

Here's a little bit more about our trip to Sundance Resort on January 19th.

We all got suited up - some for the first time in quite a few years - and even got to help dad, partly to make up for the hundreds of times he had to force our feet into them boots.

 Here is dad after just getting on Ray's Lift.  Andy used a safety harness to make sure he'd stay on the lift.

 You have to take in the phenomenal view of Mt. Timpanogos when you're up at Sundance.

 Made it safely off of Ray's and on to Arrowhead. (Video to come soon)

We didn't get to capture Brian as he unloaded from the lift.  At least it was in sacrifice to get dad safely over to Bearclaw Cabin, but he still had the only fall of the day.

 Here are a couple views of the Utah Valley soup bowl (that inversion makes for some crazy haze).

 Just a few shots of hanging out outside Bearclaw for a few minutes.  (see the other post for a shot inside)

After having lunch, we took to the slopes.
But first dad got packed up in the toboggan by a few Sundance Ski Patrol members.

 Matt took a few shots of the scenery down Bishop's Bowl, but I only included one.

Here's just one shot of dad in the middle there, riding down in the toboggan (I had to look that word up so many times to make sure it was spelled correctly).

Quality of Life

This was submitted as a letter to the editor of The Daily Herald. We'll see if it gets published and/or if it gets shortened. A similar letter was emailed to the general manager of Sundance.

Our mom and dad raised eight boys: eight eagle scouts, eight missionaries, eight fairly decent human beings. On December 19^th, our 70 year old dad was skiing with his friends of the Sundance Senior Ski Club, on a mountain he has enjoyed since the days of Timp Haven. He had a hard time walking to the lift that morning and a harder time making right turns on the hill. He went home early thinking maybe it was his bad back. Over the next week, he noticed increasing weakness and numbness in his right side and difficulty expressing words. On December 26^th, he discovered that he had a large tumor in his brain.

UVRMC doctors, nurses, techs, and therapists provided great care and he returned home less than 3 weeks after the tumor was found. On the first Saturday back home, exactly one month from the day that he noticed something wrong on the slopes, he returned to Sundance. He rode Rays and Arrowhead and got to breathe fresh air at Bearclaw Cabin surrounded by beautiful views, his boys and his ski buddy of 50 years. The weather was perfect. Ski patrollers Logan Rodriguez and Ashley Lewis were incredibly professional and kind in giving Dad one more run from top to bottom. He had a blast. We all did.

We want to thank Sundance for being so helpful and supportive and making it possible to return our father to his passion. Specific thanks to Mountain Ops Manager, Czar Johnson; Lift Ops and Bearclaw Cabin personnel; and Sundance Ski Patrol, especially Ashley and Logan. Thank you!

The Avery Boys learned to ski at Sundance. Now we are learning more about the fight with cancer. Dad has come out swinging and this small victory is felt deeply by him, by us, and we hope by any others who are fighting. Quality of life is his and will be to the end.

Family Council

Today we held probably the first Family Council we've ever had. We took the opportunity to meet with those who could be here to talk about Dad's condition. We included Wes through Facetime and David on the phone.

Dad shared with us about his prognosis and activities. He will start physical therapy more regularly at home and the radiation therapy starts a week from tomorrow at UVRMC. It will be rough and it will hurt, but "we're gonna do it anyway, we're gonna fight." He asked for us all to continue to be supportive and helpful to keep up his improvement. The chemotherapy will start at the same time as radiation with a short break, then monthly cycles of chemotherapy.

The oncologist shared that patients who don't go through these treatments may last 2-3 months. Those who do can live 2-3 years, maybe longer. So we have been counseled to get things all prepared so that doesn't weigh on our minds. We've also decided to start planning some monthly family outings, depending on dad's condition of course.

We started yesterday by taking a trip with seven brothers and dad to Sundance (see another post soon). 



More to come soon!