A Tribute To Epoman
I am deeply saddened today, by the loss of a young man who did touch many peoples lives by his fierce and courageous struggle with end stage renal failure, for the past 13 years. Bill Halcomb, or better known as "Epoman", on the fabulous website he created to bring support and awareness to the horrible disease that finally claimed his life. I have been a member of his website since Sandra was diagnosed, and have met many brave, wonderful people there. The insight, knowledge, and understanding for what "end stage renal failure" really is, has been invaluable to me. Unfortunately, I had not visited the site for a while, and was shocked to find out that "Epoman" passed away on March, 02,07, when I checked in last night. Rest in peace Bill. You have been a great inspiration to many, many people. I know your young son miss you very much, but he will allways be secure in knowing that his dad loved him very, very much, and can be proud of the fact that his father touched more peoples lives, than most of us can ever hope to do. Please visit this great site. http://www.ihatedialysis.com/forum/
posted by Christina at 10:12 PM
2 Comments:
Hello
Thank you for allowing us to travel this journey with you. My heart breaks for your daughter...and for you. I pray fervently...that a kidney can be found that is compatible.
My mom passed away in 1998. She died from complications from diabetes, however she was also in the beginning of renal failure. I honestly believe that she was so afraid, and so disheartened after so many years of trying to keep her illness in check, that she just let go.
Please know that many prayers are being sent your way...and you are often in my thoughts.
Laurie
What can I say about Epoman .. hmm... well, Epoman and I used to talk on Skype all the time, sometimes arguing, sometimes talking about our health, and sometimes he would show me pictures from his life. I still have on my hard drive a pic of him at a baseball game with his son before Epoman was in a wheelchair. Epoman really had a lot of pride for his son and also a lot of pride for his work on his website. He wanted his website to outlast him. I told him it definitely would but then he started to get worried about others sabotaging it. For some reason he thought I would cause trouble but I never had any such intentions. I spent a great deal of time on Skype going back and forth on this. In the end Epoman had encouraged me to beat his post count and I did and we were laughing about it and joking around. We also were working on a page together for a dialysis nurse I was a mod for, and Epoman made up this Donor Search page and asked me for a banner and put it on the page. Then next thing I know he is gone. I never had the chance to prove to his admin team that I was not trying to cause trouble and Epoman was the only one who knew that I was a good person. He also was the one I had turned to for Fistula advice as I never was on Hemo Dialysis before. I had spent years on Peritoneal Dialysis. With Epoman gone I didn't have him to turn to. Epoman was a man every patient could turn to for kidney advice as he had years and years and years of experience. I think what shocked me so much about his passing was that he was my age. I had just lost another dialysis friend who was my age just when I first joined IHD. Infact the other friend was a member of IHD as well and a patient of the hospital I go to. With 2 dialysis patients dying who are my age on this hemodialysis when I just changed to it from Peritoneal Dialysis I really wanted to be told people don't die on dialysis. But out of all people to die, Epoman was one who had so much to offer the world! I mean, he had this great site, and was still working on that site for the dialysis nurse! He was going to host it even and buy another domain name (the one on this page: http://www.ihatedialysis.com/joe/)! He was a man with so much more living to do! And I look back with such regret because after he died the admin that took over banned me from his site. I feel regret because I feel like I should never have questioned the things I questioned. I should never have spoken up when I disagreed with any of his rules. I never should have asked questions that were not kidney related. Then I would still be a member there. His site will live on. And I hope it does.
- Angie of www.angieskidney.com
Post a Comment
<< Home