TJ Perry
Feature Story
December 10th, 2012
Writing & Reporting News
ERIK LINDSTROM
“My grandfather was more than a
survivor,” Erika recounts with a smile. “He was inspiration to myself and
everyone who knew him. He never, ever gave up.”
Erik Lindstrom of Woodland,
California ended his eight-year battle with lung cancer last year at the ripe
age of 79 after spending his last years doing things he loved with the family
he loved even more.
“The thing was that I never once
heard (Grandpa Erik) complain about the pain,” his 20-year-old granddaughter
Erika lovingly recalls. “Through the
chemo, the medication, everything, he was always smiling, making sure we all
had our lives in order.
Erik was the oldest of six children
living in a sleepy suburb tucked into a corner of northern California’s bay
area in the early 1930’s. From an early
age, as Erika is told by her relatives, Erik was obsessed with happiness and
optimism. He had a special knack for
sensing any form of sadness in his friends and family and always strove to be
the one to lift their spirits.
As a student, Erik was a standout
athlete with excellent grades through his high school years. He lettered in football, basketball and track
& field, earning district conference honors in all three sports. Erik had dreams of pursuing a collegiate and
eventual professional athletic career, but he chose to find work to pick up the
slack left by the early death of his father.
“Growing up, all I heard about
Grandpa were jokes about how he should still try out for the (Golden State)
Warriors,” Erika exhales while shooting an imaginary basketball. “He kept
himself in such great shape that I’m sure they would’ve called him back. The
fact that Grandpa gave that up to provide for his family speaks volumes of his
character.”
As one of the eldest in the
household, Erik worked as many as four jobs at a time to help put his siblings
through Catholic school and enough food in the fridge for supper. His family not only relied on him for all the
household handiwork, given his experience as a plumber’s apprentice and
knowledge of carpentry, but it was also his job to shuttle his siblings
wherever they needed to go.
At an age where his peers were
worrying about buying a house and starting a family, Erik was only concerned
about his own.
“Grandpa stayed in the house until
his late twenties when his youngest sister had graduated from high school. His family definitely could have managed
without him but he took such pride and joy in being there for them that he didn’t
want to leave,” Erika says with a tone of admiration.
Erik Lindstrom finally settled down
at the age of 30 with a woman whom he had known from his high school days named
Barbara. They moved into a beautiful
two-story house just minutes from the one he had grown up in so as to be close
to his family. The two of them wasted no
time starting a family of their own, having their first child, Peter, just ten
months later.
Over the years Erik and Barbara
raised the next generation of Lindstroms while Erik started up his own local
plumbing business. They lived a modest
life, valuing their love for one another much more than material possessions.
Given his athletic history, Erik did
his best to keep himself in shape as well as he could with regular diet and
exercise. The rest of the Lindstrom
family was shocked at the diagnosis of lung cancer he received at age 69, but
Erik didn’t change at all despite being told he had less than a year left.
“Grandpa was actually smiling when he
told me about his cancer,” Erika remembers. “I was horrified, depressed, a
million things… But seeing him as happy as ever gave me a lot of comfort. If he
was okay, then I was okay.”
The Lindstrom family prepared for the
worst as the end of Erik’s predicted deadline approached. They spent every minute with him doing
whatever he wanted to do, whether that meant going to 49er’s games, visits to
the shooting range, or even skydiving.
As that year came to an end, Erik
found out he was in remission.
“I can’t describe to you how happy we
all were. He was the picture of health and looked like he could live another 70
years,” Erika says, recalling what were supposed to be his final days. “More
than anything, we learned how to appreciate every day we could spend with him.”
The next nine years were full of ups
and downs as Erik’s health hit many peaks and many valleys before he passed peacefully
in his sleep in November of 2011. The
one thing that never faltered was his enjoyment of life.
“No matter what, Grandpa always had a
strong face on for us no matter how sick he might have been. The best mind
reader in the world wouldn’t have been able to tell he knew he was close to the
end. Grandpa loved our family and never let us forget that,” Erika says.
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