|
 News
about Forrest's Diagnosis
Send
Forrest your best wishes
Read
Forrest's Reflections on Cancer
Watch
Forrest deliver his sermon,
Love and Death, at All Souls, Tulsa
Watch Forrest's Palm Sunday sermon,
Love, Death, and Easter.
Watch
Forrest's sermon from Sunday, April 6, Bedside
Manners.
Friday,
March 28, 2008
A
note from Forrest:
Dear
Friends,
I
write with good news. A recent CT scan shows that the chemotherapy
regime I am on has proved successful in beating
back the cancer.
All four tumors have shrunk significantly, so we shall continue
with the protocol as long as it continues to work. This,
unfortunately, is an incurable cancer, but remission is possible
for a time
and I appear to have won a few more months for myself, a
gift I welcome with open arms.
I
shall be back in the pulpit on April 6, and look forward to
seeing some of you then.
Lots
of love,
Thursday,
March 6, 2008
A
note from Galen:
Dear
Friends,
This morning I received an update on Forrest’s treatment plan from Carolyn
(her note follows mine), as well as a new message to pass along from Forrest
(which follows Carolyn’s). As you will learn, his chemotherapy is proceeding
apace. Forrest is in blessedly good spirits and looking forward to preaching
on Palm Sunday.
Thanks again for your many expressions of love and concern, and I’ll
keep you informed as I receive more news.
Love,
Thursday,
March 6, 2008
A
note from Carolyn:
Forrest
is enrolled in a Phase 2 clinical trial at Memorial Sloane
Kettering that combines a cocktail of chemotherapies
with a biologic antibody that has proven effective in prolonging
life in different kinds of late stage cancers. This trial has
250 people participating nationwide, and we were lucky that there
is a trial site right in our back yard at MSK where 20 patients
are being similarly treated.
Although
there are many side effects that come with treatment, the doctors
at MSK have been
masterful at treating the side effects
such that Forrest is comfortable most of the time. As you would
expect, Forrest makes lemonade out of any kind of lemon—and
therefore rejoices in the fact that “it could be so much
worse.” He is particularly pleased that he feels well
enough to work on his book, read the bundles of wonderful notes
and
letters, play with the cats, and pass the time happily with
our kids and close friends.
Keep
the prayers and good thoughts coming our way!
Love,
Carolyn
Thursday,
March 6, 2008
A
note from Forrest:
Dear
Friends,
First,
thank you so much for the outpouring of love and support: letters,
books, flowers, cookies, music! I wish I
could thank each of
you personally for your abundant kindness, but please know
how much each memento of love and affection has meant to
me. Indeed, the whole family is lifted on your wings of love.
I'm
faring well, having moved easily into the routine of weekly
chemotherapy and benefiting enormously by the caring
competence
of all the good folks at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital,
where I am receiving my cancer care. As for that book I
promised you,
it's finished! Beacon Press assures me that they'll have
it out by the end of June, which gives me surpassing joy.
I
look forward to seeing many of you on Palm Sunday, when I
shall return to the pulpit. You may end up getting two
Easter
sermons
this year, not just one, but, when it comes right down
to it, there can never be too many Easter sermons.
Carolyn
and the children join me in offering our thanks to one and
all.
We wish you Godspeed and a magnificent
Spring.
Lots
of love,
Sunday,
February 3, 2008
An
update from Galen:
Dear
Friends,
After more than a year of good health, Forrest shared with
us from the pulpit today the devastating news that his cancer
has returned. As part of his sermon (full
text here), he read
his letter to the congregation that will be mailed out tomorrow
(see below).
For nearly three decades, Forrest has labored tirelessly to
help All Souls become a compassionate and vital congregation.
In various ways over the years, he has ministered to each of
us, and to many others besides. His illness gives us a singular
opportunity to minister to him in return.
As before, you may send your best wishes to Forrest using
the link at the top of this page or by sending a card or
letter
to him at the church. I’ll keep you informed with updates
as developments warrant.
Love,
A
letter from Forrest to the congregation of All Souls:
Dear
Friends,
After enjoying a year of fine health, this past Thursday
I learned that my cancer had recurred, having spread
to my lungs and liver. There is no way to sugarcoat
this news. I shall undergo a regimen of chemotherapy,
more for palliative than curative reasons, but must
face the certainty that my cancer is terminal and
the great likelihood that my future will be measured
in months not years.
You
have accompanied me on this journey from its beginning. What
a comfort that has
been. In matters
of mortality, we are all companions (the word means, “those
who break bread together”). From its very beginning,
our repast has been a feast.
In
more than one respect, I feel very lucky. In the fall of 2006,
my family
and I had a dress rehearsal
for the drama we now are entering in earnest. My
wife, Carolyn, and our four children, Frank, Nina,
Jacob and Nathan were able then to begin working
through the complex feelings that always accompany
the loss of a family member, especially a parent.
As for me, I have greeted every day since my reprieve
(and shall greet the days to come) as gravy.
I
won’t
predict how my body will hold up during the course
of treatment, but I can tell you what
I hope to do. Though all of our stories end in the
middle, with unfinished business piled high, I should
like to end my story, if I may, by summing up my
thoughts on love and death in a book that might bring
as much comfort to others as you have brought to
me. In it, I shall share what I have learned from
you during the three decades I have been privileged
to serve as your minister. Time and again, at your
loved ones’ deathbeds and together in my study,
we have struggled to wrench meaning from loss, seeking
to find our way through the valley of the shadow.
Rarely acknowledging to yourselves (or even sensing)
your great courage and remarkable insight, on occasions
such as these you have taught me the lessons of a
lifetime.
Over
the weeks ahead, I shall keep Galen up to date on my progress.
I’ll also post occasional
bulletins from the front on the All Souls website
(Allsoulsnyc.org).
I hope to return to the pulpit on Palm Sunday.
Since
it would be remarkably unimaginative for me to
die at fifty-nine as my father and grandfather
each did before me, I shall do my utmost to make
it to September, when, after rejoicing in my daughter’s
wedding, I shall celebrate both my sixtieth birthday
and the completion of thirty years at All Souls.
In
the meantime, know that my thoughts and prayers
are with you.
With lots of love,
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