As most people already know, Roger Ebert recently died of cancer. He’d had it for a long time and although disfigured by it, still maintained his public persona.
It
was the week after I had been diagnosed with something – they were still trying
to figure exactly what. I was in the basement having just completed my PET
scan. They were wheeling me back up to my room and they wheeled me right past an older mand and a women with big-ish hair who were talking with a doctor. The man was wearing a hospital
gown and hospital footies. The woman was looking earnestly at the doctor,
presumably listening closely to what he had to say.
I
thought the man looked familiar and once it dawned on me that it was Roger
Ebert, I almost turned around to the orderly pushing my gurney to say, “Hey! Do
you know who that was?!” See him there made me feel a little more certain about choosing
Northwestern for my treatment. If Roger Ebert who, presumably, has a great deal of money and
could go anywhere for treatment chose to come here, then perhaps it’s
trustworthy.
And
I used this story. At the beginning of this cancer thing, my mother was trying to
convince me to go to a cancer center like Sloan-Kettering and I guess there’s
one in Florida near where she lives. I understood that she wanted me to get the
best treatment possible, but I didn’t want to move or travel for treatment.
Once I told her that I had seen Roger Ebert and that he was getting treatment
where I was, she understood and dropped the subject.
When
I tell people my Roger Ebert story, many of them ask me, “Did you give him two
thumbs up? Hardy harr harr!” I have to say that, no, I didn’t give him two
thumbs up. The man was (half) dressed in a hospital gown and presumably had
gone through some sort of scan. I doubt he was in a “two thumbs up” sort of
mood." I know after I have a scan, I'm certainly not.
I
am sorry that his time had come. He was inspiring to many people – both with
and without cancer. I hope both he and his family are at peace.
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