The Gentleman

In 2003 Greg's dad, Ralph "Darrell" Morrison, was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), which is a precursor to Leukemia.

In 2008, Darrell was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. His radiation treatments lined up perfectly with Bailey's due date. His last treatment was the same week that I was due so I challenged him to a race. The loser buys the winner a steak dinner. To win, I would have to have Bailey before his last treatment. Luckily, she came two weeks early so I was treated to a nice dinner ... and a new baby girl ... and he was cancer free! I'm pretty positive that he would not have let me buy him a steak dinner even if he did win.

In the Fall of 2009, Darrell's MDS was starting to progress. He was having trouble keeping his white blood count and platelets up so he started having blood transfusions every 6 weeks or so.

In February of 2010, Darrell was diagnosed with full blown Acute Leukemia. We knew this was going to be a long road, but as a family, we were more than willing to do whatever was necessary to heal him. That month was the first of many trips to Dallas and the Baylor Medical Hospital's Cancer Treatment Center. After some testing, Darrell was approved to receive a  Bone Marrow Transplant. This was fantastic news, except for the fact that we now had to find a donor. Not just any donor. A donor that matched him perfectly AND was still willing to donate.

This picture was taken on Father's Day 2010. This was Papa with Breanna (my niece), Lou, Bailey, and Rachael (my niece).

After lots of prayer, the perfect donor was found and Darrell (and Cindy, Greg's mom) moved to Baylor Medical Center in June of 2010 to prepare for his transplant. After his last and strongest round of chemo, his cancer level was still around 50% which was much higher than the doctors wanted it to be. By God's grace, he was still cleared to receive his bone marrow transplant on July 1, 2010. Darrell was the 116th person to receive a bone marrow transplant that year. What's the significance in that you ask? Darrell's birthday is 1/16. We took this as a sign from God that He was in control.

Although the transplant was the closest match they could find, the new donor cells were up against a fight to replace the cancer still in Darrell's body after chemo. What should have taken days, took approximately 24 days, and then we heard the best news we could have ever heard ... "you are cancer FREE!" Darrell was considered a miracle by the doctors and nursing staff at Baylor. We made sure that every one of them knew that his healing was by God's hand.

A day or two after being pronounced cancer free, Darrell's organs started to shut down. Although he was healed, his body just couldn't fight anymore from the effects of the multiple rounds of chemo he went through to prepare for the transplant.

So, on July 27, 2010, as I stood beside his hospital bed in ICU (along with Cindy, Greg, Greg's brother, Greg's sister, Darrell's sister and her husband, and Cindy's sister and her husband) we said goodbye. That was the toughest day I've gone through so far as an adult. To be honest, that day sucked.

Without God, our family, and close friends, that day would have been unbearable. However, with God, our family, and close friends, we were able to see the blessings in that day.

About a month after Darrell passed, I was able to give my testimony of this journey to my Sunday School class. Thankfully I was among friends and they allowed me to cry through most of my talk. What I wanted them to know, and what I want you to know, is that God is there in the good and the bad. If you just let go and allow Him to work, then He will make you a stronger and better person than you were yesterday. Journey's like this don't happen every day, but I'm thankful that I went through it because afterwards I came out with more faith than ever before. I was finally able to say (and actually believe) that I had enough faith to move a mountain.

Matthew 17:20 says "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”


If you would like to sign up for the National Bone Marrow Transplant list, please click on this site: http://www.marrow.org/. It's free and you could save a life.