Danny's service will be at Colbert Memorial on Highway 43 in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
There will be a viewing this evening,(Monday) and the funeral is set for Tuesday at 11AM.
I told Kathy about your kind words and she said to relay to you her thanks and appreciation for the help that has been extended to her.
This little story will give you, the reader a hint of why his customers thought so much of him...
Danny was in Chicago at the Cancer Centers of America under going chemo when a call came informing him one of his mechanics had taken another job and was not coming back in.
They had run into some difficult mechanical problems and this had put them behind in getting the customers cars fixed already, and now being one man less was going to really delay some of the cars setting on the lot getting fixed in a timely manner.
Against his doctors advice, Danny boarded a plane and headed home. Needless to say, I chewed him out about coming back, and his reply was this..."My customers put their trust in me to get their cars out in a timely manner if I can. My problems are my problems, I cannot put my worries on my customers, as I am sure they have enough on their own plate already."
When he arrived he had 11 cars setting on the lot that were partially repaired and had been waiting on parts.The Parts had arrived and Danny started to work. I observed a man who was sick from the chemo therapy treatment attempt to do the work himself. He did well the first day, but on the second day his strength gave out and his sister, Kaye became his hands as he gave her directions on what to do. In 3 days a man who was dying, suffering from chemo side effects and a sister who loved her brother so much that she did not hesitate to get underneath vehicles and lay down into motor wells to get the job done finished those 11 vehicles.
When his money started to run out, he begin to sell everything he owned to pay off his bills. He stated to me, "I do not want Kathy to have to deal with any bills after I am gone, as its going to be hard enough on her.As he talked about his wife, he stated, he had one regret...That they had only been together 13 years".
Danny was not different of the most of us, he did his best to help others when he could. He had his faults like all of us, one of which was smoking, that ended in his death.
I had been on him for years about smoking and each time he stated, he was going to quit and was cutting back. He never did until his throat got sore. He ate throat lorenzers like they were candy for a month, but it did not go away. Then the swelling begin around his left ear and he went to the doctor with what he thought was a ear infection.
This Ear Infection was in fact, 4th stage throat cancer.
Later on, he made the statement to me, "why didn't you slap me silly until I quit? Never, in my life have I had such pain. I wasn't stupid, I knew that smoking could give you cancer, but to tell you the truth it always happened to the other person until it happen to me. I guess in my mind I dismissed it as a real possibility happening to me.
When you can, tell everybody about me and what caused my death. You know what is really interesting, now that it is too late, I no longer crave a cigarette and have not since the day the doctor told me of the Cancer.
These words come straight from Danny to the individuals who are still smoking.
My name is Danny Smith and chances are you don't know me, as we probably have never met.
But you and I had one thing in common. We bought cigarettes and smoked them on a daily bases. I am sure a lot of you have thought about quitting, with some saying never, you enjoy it. You probably have said somewhere along the line, Well! you know, we all die of something, or I know people who have never smoked and died of lung cancer, or I had a relative who smoked for 70 years and never got cancer. All of those are probably true statements. But let me ask you this, How much do you really love your family? Most would say, more than life itself. If you truely love your family, then don't take the chance of putting your family through what I have placed my wife,family members and friends through. Don't be that selfish, as it is a horrible thing to do to anyone. You are not the only one affected by the cancer if you get it. Your entire family and friend circle is completely altered for life.
If you get throat cancer, the first thing you are going to experience is soreness of your throat. You in most cases will think it is simply just another sore throat like you have had a thousand of times before. After a while you will have to go to the doctor and this is when you are going to be hit like a sledge hammer with the news.
There will at first be a sort of disbelief, then the next question is, doctor am I going to die? The Doctor is going to be hesitate to tell you that for the truth is, he or she really does not know. They do know that things are going to get much worse before they get better.In most cases, you are going to be scheduled for surgery so they can get a pieceof the tumor and determine just what type of cancer,and what stage you are in.
Oh! did I tell you to forget about your regular schedule. Your wife and family members will have to adjust theirs also, as you cannot drive yourself to the Cancer Center for treatment.
The hours you have spent before making a living to pay the bills, well, you are going to be sitting in a chair for hours everyday at the cancer center with a room full of other individuals doing the same thing. You will then be taken over to the radiation center for that treatment. When you get home, you are going to be so weak you will not be able to do much of anything.
As the radiation treatment continues, your throat is going to be burned from the inside out. Think of the worst sunburn you have ever had, then multiply it by 1000 times and you will start to get a idea of what your throat is going to feel like. Now! try to eat and swallow with that sunburn. Your throat starts to swell from the radiation and after a few short days, solid foods become impossible and liquids become your meal. If you don't like the taste of Ensure, then you need to start buying some and get use to the taste, as it is going to be the one item that you are going to taste every day until you either are cured or die.
Oh! did I tell you what it is like to have the stint put into your chest so you can get the Chemo. Well! it looks like the tube that sticks out of an inflatable raft, except it is sticking out of you. They just don't stick it in your chest once for it has to be pulled out and replaced so the area can stay clean.
Think of a large size needle being inserted into your chest and you will start to get a hint of what it feels like.
As the days turn into weeks you throat will become so raw and swollen that you will no longer be able to even swallow liquids. This is when they will insert the feeding tube in your stomach. It will be a long rubber hose about 14 inches long about 1/2 inch in dia, sticking out of your stomach with a snap valve on the end. When you get hungry, your wife or family member will open the snap the valve and shoot the ensure into the tube from a large syringe.
Oh! did I tell you how sexy it looked, it does wonders for your sex life.
As time passes, if your condition gets worse, the doctors will tell you they have done all they could, but time is now limited for you.
You will then get to see how hospice works. You know, I never, ever thought of hospice when I lit up that cigarette, not ever guessing that I was buying a ticket on the cancer train that would allow me to see how wonderful those people are up close and personal.
You can forget about being shy, for as time goes on, you will no longer be able to make it to the bathroom and a portable toliet will be placed close to your bed. The family member or friend who helped you to the toliet will stand there while you attempt to have a bowl movement from a liquid diet of Ensure. Sometimes you can wipe your own butt, but as times progresses just as when you were a baby, someone else will be wiping it for you.
As time progresses you will be given a bath either by a family member or hospice member.If you have a problem with someone seeing you naked, you will get use to it fairly quick as its going to be common place.
Remember all of the times you attempted to lose weight and never could. Well! this is one diet where weight lose is guaranteed, but I do not recommend it. It is much better to keep your fat than to undergo this style of weight loss.
After a while you will have to have a small 1/8 inch oxygen tube placed on our face so the oxygen can enter into your nostrils.This is going to make your nose and ears raw from the rubbing of the tube, and gauze will be placed between the tube and your skin. You might just for the excercise of it go down to the hardware store and get a clear tube that size and wear it around your face at night when you are sleeping, this will get you use to the feel of it, for if you continue to smoke, the probability of you and that tube becoming acquinted is real.
Eventually, the tube will not be enough and a full face oxygen mask will be require to help you get all of the oxygen that you can into your lungs that are now starting to fill up with fluid.
By now, you are no longer able to get out of bed and a large pencil size catherater has been inserted so your kidneys can work for as long as they possibility can.
As the time gets closer to you leaving this earth, they will in most cases increase your
morphine so you will stop panicking during the night. As for me personally, I got to the point where I knew my friends and family members were talking to me, but it was all I could do just to open my eyes to say thank you for coming to see me. At least, I had told them all before I lost my voice how much I loved and appreciated each one. I feel very lucky about that. At least this sickness does give you that chance where others who die in accidents do not get that chance.
After a while, I could not open my eyes, but I could still hear and could move my finger to acknowledge them talking to me, then that too went away.
I really don't know who long this went on, hours, or days, but then I saw the light and found myself going toward the end of it at a fast speed and realized that I was finished with my time on this earth.
Hospice will give your wife, family members and friends time with your body as it starts to cool down. At this time, hospice will call the doctor and they will record your death so others who need the date to process your death certificate and insurance papers will have it.
The funeral home will be called and when they arrive they will put you on a hard back, plastic board that is stretched over the gurney. This is to help them lift your body into the cooler at the funeral home. You are then wrapped in a sheet and then covered with this real pretty green like bed spread that is elastic on both ends that close around your feet and head.
The next day your home is going to over flow with friends, neighbors and family. I don't know what it is about the South, but when you die, I assure you, your home in most cases is going to be covered with food from wall to ceiling.It is the Southern way of showing respect and regards to the ones you have left behind. They say this comes from a tradition when they use to have SIN EATERS come over. Large amounts of food would be placed on the body and the SIN EATERS would be paid to eat the food off of your body. It was believed back then, that the person's sin was transferred to from the body into the food, and persons were paid to eat the food, thus taking your SIN into their body.
While that tradition no longer is practiced, the tradition of bring food to the family still is and you know I personally loved that tradition. It is part of who we in the South are and sadly while I am no longer a living member, I am still Southern to the core.
Just as my sister became my hands when I needed to finished repairing some cars of my customers, my friend here has become by hands to tell you my story when I no longer can.
Death has a way of preventing that you know.
What I just had my friend write here may appear morbid to some, but every word written describes the real reality of dying from throat cancer.
If my story allows you to stop and think about what you're doing to not only yourself but your family and friends when you light up, then I have done my part.
As I stated in the beginning, you and I have one thing in common eventhou we have probably never ever met, "WE ARE SMOKERS".
If you think about it, then let that be the only thing we have in common, do not follow me any further and do what I wish I had and could have done if only I had put the discipline I know I had into affect.
Danny Smith speaking to you from the other side.
I'm very sorry to hear that Danny has passed on. My husband and I had cars fixed at his shop,he was a good man who stood by his word and work.May he now rest in peace.
