Ethan Bibb ended his long, hard battle with cancer yesterday afternoon. I feel like our community has been holding it’s collective breath waiting for that terrible news. The latest updates on Ethan have been heart breaking (see http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/bibb). The results of the MRIs taken this year have not been what anyone was hoping for. In the last few weeks they've had to discontinue treatments as Ethan's counts were too low.
Ethan had actually gotten quite a bit stronger with the chemo out of his system. He has been able to do a lot of things he hasn't had the strength to do in quite a while. He had a wonderful day at a Titans football practice with his own locker right next to Vince Young's locker.
Last weekend Ethan got sick. A trip to the hospital revealed pneumonia. He was simply too weak to fight it. If a family ever needed prayers it is the Bibb family right now.
A few weeks ago Ben was invited to spend a Friday afternoon with Ethan. Vicki took Ben over right after school and they had several wonderful hours together. Ethan was feeling well enough to talk, play the Wii, and ride a four-wheeler. Later that evening Ben tagged along to a church benefit for Ethan. Ethan even sang a couple of karaoke songs (Ben was too shy for that).
I’m glad Ethan and Ben had that time together a few weeks ago. They had not gotten to see each other much in the 14 months since Ethan’s diagnosis. So far Ben has done very well with this news. I think he is a lot like me in that he does not wear emotions like this on his sleeve. He’s also heard us be thankful recently that both Grandma Jones and Aunt Helen are no longer suffering but are completely healed and living in God’s presence. Ben knows the same is true for Ethan and is probably handling things better than the rest of us. Praise God we have a Savior who has conquered death for us so we can have that comfort in a time of loss.
Again, please keep the Bibb family in your prayers.
Joe
