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After a few years of battling cancer and recently alhzheimers he passed in his sleep a couple of hours ago. I'm sitting here writing this cause I don't know what else to do. I have no real family outside of my parents since I'm an only child, and my wife's family is less than supportive. So I suppose I'll let my second family know about him.
Don Pierce was the last surviving of 12 siblings, all of whom died of alzheimers related issues. He was an all-state basketball player that was feared even by his own teammates. He put an elbow into anyone's chest trying to grab the rebound. Any ball coming off the rim was his, period. He went to the University of Evansville where he became the campus radio DJ before being drafted into the army in his junior year. His intimidating presence and sense of humor got the attention of the base commander who hand picked him to be his personal assistant.
I learned basically everything useful in my life by watching and observing him. He taught me how to draw, how to hit a baseball, how to fight, how to fish and hunt and just how to be a man and stand up for myself and always, even when it's painful, do the right thing. Anything I am right now is mostly because of him. He was a giant gentleman and will be missed.
I will be in and out over the next week as we prepare services and make the necessary arrangements. We are having a service here in town and one in Evansville where he will be buried with his family. I want to make the next 7-10 days a celebration of a long, good life of a good man. Yes it's a sad time for me and my mother but we also know he'd been going downhill and had no quality of life. I've been prepared for this for a long time, which is probably why I can communicate without breaking down. That happened days ago for me.
So, to lighten the mood and in celebration of his life, check out the following photos. Everyone says I look like my mother but how uncanny is the resemblance between my father's and my own 4-year old picture? Of course I'm the one in the Batman costume. Thank you every one for your support over the years and what I know will be your support in the coming days. I'd never known what it was like to have a big family till I came here in 2008.
Don Pierce was the last surviving of 12 siblings, all of whom died of alzheimers related issues. He was an all-state basketball player that was feared even by his own teammates. He put an elbow into anyone's chest trying to grab the rebound. Any ball coming off the rim was his, period. He went to the University of Evansville where he became the campus radio DJ before being drafted into the army in his junior year. His intimidating presence and sense of humor got the attention of the base commander who hand picked him to be his personal assistant.
I learned basically everything useful in my life by watching and observing him. He taught me how to draw, how to hit a baseball, how to fight, how to fish and hunt and just how to be a man and stand up for myself and always, even when it's painful, do the right thing. Anything I am right now is mostly because of him. He was a giant gentleman and will be missed.
I will be in and out over the next week as we prepare services and make the necessary arrangements. We are having a service here in town and one in Evansville where he will be buried with his family. I want to make the next 7-10 days a celebration of a long, good life of a good man. Yes it's a sad time for me and my mother but we also know he'd been going downhill and had no quality of life. I've been prepared for this for a long time, which is probably why I can communicate without breaking down. That happened days ago for me.
So, to lighten the mood and in celebration of his life, check out the following photos. Everyone says I look like my mother but how uncanny is the resemblance between my father's and my own 4-year old picture? Of course I'm the one in the Batman costume. Thank you every one for your support over the years and what I know will be your support in the coming days. I'd never known what it was like to have a big family till I came here in 2008.
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