Joe Skinner

We will all eventually die in the end

My grandfather has lived through the deaths of nearly everybody he’e ever known over the years. He turns 80 years old this July.

We often chat about this very topic over vodka and tonic each time he makes his annual trip south to pay me a visit. I’ve come to terms with the reality that I’ll be sitting in his seat decades from now sharing similar stories.

If it’s not the recent passing of pop culture figures I’ve grown up with in some form or fashion, such as David Bowie or Prince, it’s the moms and dads of friends who’ve been laying to rest for the final time over the past few months.

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Joe Skinner continues courageous fight against leukemia

How cruel of a world do we live when people are subject to the kind of torture that comes as a result of cancerous diseases?

Makes you question everything you’ve ever believed in, right down to the battle between good and evil and why bad things happen to good people.

Cancer affects people of all ages and chips at the very spirit of helpless bystanders each and every day.

Earlier this month I wrote a story about 17-year old Joe Skinner, a Bishop Moore senior and UCF baseball signee, and his sudden battle with a rare form of leukemia.

Just a couple of days after it was published Skinner was put in the intensive care unit after going into septic shock. An infection was discovered, then more than a week later he was flown by air ambulance to Dallas in hopes of undergoing a previously planned experimental treatment.

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