I don't really update my journal very often but I have a personal announcement to make.

After struggling with ALS for over a year, my dad passed away on July 20th '09. Because he was unable to properly swallow his food, he had been inhaling his food into his lungs which gave him pneumonia.

He was able to fight off the pneumonia but the struggle left him so weak and malnourished that he no longer had the strength to breath on his own or to digest food through a feeding tube.

I watched him pass away in a hospital bed at 11:00 p.m. and amazingly, after the ALS had made his hands and feet draw up, his hands straightened out as a cold gush of air swept over everyone sitting in the room with him.

My dad passed away at the age of 44 and he was a hero in my life. He didn't even get to make it to my wedding just 3 months away.

I really, really don't know what I want to do.