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Health & Fitness

My Brother Al Stone Was Musical, Spiritual — and Funny

My poor brother Al.  He went in to see an ophthalmologist for an apparent “floater” in his eye. The doctor said to wait a few weeks, it should go away. But it didn’t.
 
Eventually Al goes in a year later to finally tackle this ongoing interference and finds he has a cancer growth on the back of his eye.
  
On this second visit he discovered that the original ophthalmologist who misdiagnosed him committed suicide a day after Al’s original visit a year earlier.   He never told me what he was already aware of.  The chances of surviving were very slim.
  
I thought he had a good chance of beating this since he caught it early on.  Al knew his chances were poor.  I visited him only two times after his diagnosis. Had I known he had little time to live, I would have spent more time with him. 
 
He was my buddy. I am sorry to not have been there more in the past 30 days. I am very thankful that Ken was there in his last few days to be with him when he passed on.
 
Based on Ken’s email to a few of us, he died in his arms and Al knew that he was going away as it was happening.
  
Al was not fearful; he accepted his path and moved forward without any remorse or tears. For those who may not know him before Chinese medicine, Al was a free spirit. He really targeted his career at whatever tugged at his heart. 
The fun in life (and the spotlight) is what he was after. 

Al’s yearning to be in the spotlight was evident in his pursuit of careers such as “radio DJ,” “DJ for parties and weddings,”  some acting and MC’ing at a few of the radio staff functions, and being funny—he was very funny. 
 
If anyone experienced his foreign accent dialects, they know what I mean.  Al was also one heck of a “drunk,” as good as Foster Brooks in his prime.  
 
Both of us where proud of our classic rock and roll knowledge, and used to compete via email on who sang what and what was the meaning of the song, etc. Our main focus seemed to be British Rock and usually the Beatles.
  
We had a longstanding bet on who would be the first to do business with a Beatle.  He claims he came closest when an associate of his worked on George Harrison about a year before George’s passing. Al was a very spiritual being, but didn’t buy into organized religion.
  
His belief was that God was in all of us.  In his youth, we heard experiences he had with astral projection—out of body experiences and the like. 
 
The day of the Omaha tornado, I overheard Al talking to our mother about his concern for my life that day.  Something bad was going to happen to me. The day was May 6, 1975. 

About five hours later, a huge tornado ripped through the center of Omaha and right on top of the bowling center I was working in.  As we all huddled down in the cellar, I remembered Al’s concern earlier that day and thinking he was correct.

The thought of my own passing occurred to me as the lights went out and that massive machine ripped through our building.  We climbed out of the cellar, all intact and unharmed.    
 
Al accepted all walks of life and embraced his relationships with anyone. He held no prejudices due to their physical differences. 

I feel that our mother had a lot to do with this. She taught us early not to treat others differently or not to hate others due to our natural differences. 

Because of this, Al was open to learning about how other people live (in and out of this country) and was very knowledgeable about their mindsets as compared to most.  

I have learned from my brother and will repeat a few of the things he told me:  “If you want to get something done, give it to a busy man,”  “God makes your face the first 20 years, you make it the next 20 years.”  

For a guy who lived in a quiet and simple world, he really impressed me with his knowledge of things. 

Al, thank you for your lessons and for teaching me the meaning of the word “altruistic.” Al is donating his body to science.  One great act of altruism. 

I appreciate all you have done for this world and for me.  See you in the next world.  Your brother, Roger.

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