Life with the Larsens: 2012-04-22

What is a dying wish? I have asked this of myself and have not yet come up with an answer. I guess you have to be dying? I once heard of a dying wish many years ago from a man I was soon to be related to. Greg Larsen. Greg in his usual booming voice mentioned in casual conversation that upon his death he wanted to be shot out of a cannon. Yes a cannon. At the time of this statement he was a healthy young man with his whole life ahead of him. It could not have been more than 2 years later that he and his wife Shana found out that he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. After battling for almost 5 years (He fought tooth and nail) he lost the fight. I remember having a conversation with Travis after receiving an email form Shana. The email was asking the immediate family if they wanted to be with Greg in the last few days and hours of his life. We didn't need to think about it as we both were on the same page as we wanted to support Shana in this most awful time and help ease Greg out of this world. I now will admit I was slightly worried about how I was going to feel after he passed as he wanted to do it in the comfort of his own home. What would this look like and what happened next? I didn't want to ask any questions as I didn't want to be cruel or morbid as at the time he was still living so I kept those questions to myself and just decided to muster the courage for my husband and family when the time came. We got the call and all arrived at Greg and Shana's home. At the time Sam was 3 months old. I was still nursing him so he came as well. He was a bit of a distraction which was good and Greg got to see him again. Greg was fairly lucid and at one point he said "Where's my million dollar kid? Where's my million dollar kid?" And Shana asked if he was talking about Sam and Greg replied "Yeah! Where's my million dollar Sam?" So Shana took Sam over to Greg and Greg touched his feet and got to look at him and Sam was just looking at his uncle. "There's my million dollar Sam." It was less than 24hours later on April 12 2011 he slipped away peacefully with all of us at his bedside. After it had happened and we all embraced each other crying it felt natural to have Greg's body still with us. It wasn't scary or uncomfortable. He was in the living room on his bed and we were congregating 10 feet away in the kitchen talking about good times with him. Shana spoke up and said that a few days earlier that Greg again mentioned that he wanted his ashes to be shot out of a cannon. We all looked at each other and laughed! Matt said "Well that's Greg." That was Greg. He was big, had a commanding presence, booming voice, and knew how to leave a lasting impression on anyone who met him. Of course he would want that. He was Greg Larsen. Greg left this task to his father Steve and brothers to make this happen. They came through boy did they ever. On April 15 at the Larsen beach house friends and family rallied as the cannon was brought onto the sand and wheeled out to the waters edge. Steve prepared 7 rounds of Greg's ashes and 3 rounds of Karen's ashes (My mother in-law who passed away on Nov. 11 2010) and they left the earth with a boom. My sister in-law Jen said she could just hear Karen squealing with delight that she got to be a part of the big day as well. I agree.