Jim left Indianapolis in April on a road trip to visit good friends and his daughter and her family. He stopped for a few days in Kansas to visit and ride with his friend Nick. He stopped for a few more days in Phoenix to visit with his friends Bill and Sharon. There he took a solo ride in the Superstition Mountains climbing from Apache Junction to Tortilla Flat and back.

While in Phoenix, his neck started to bother him, When he left Arizona to drive to California, he had initially planned to stay overnight somewhere along the way. However, his neck was making him so miserable, he stuck on an Icy Hot patch and just kept on driving, arriving Friday April 27.

After getting to Fresno, the pain in his neck, shoulder, and back grew more excruciating. In addition, his skin on his neck was red all over, apparently a reaction to the Icy Hot. We tried to make him comfortable and he tried to relax, but the pain got worse. By Monday, it was clear to his daughter, Rebecca Stickler, a surgeon, and our friend Norma Solis, a family practice physician, that the problem was shingles. He started taking anti-viral medicine to halt the spread of the shingles and some serious pain medicine. So Jim was suffering pretty badly most of the week. The shingles caused nasty blisters all over his neck and he couldn't keep himself comfortable due to the pain. By the end of the week, though, he was getting much better.

On Saturday, May 5 Jim felt good enough to take a bike ride with his daughter Rebecca, son-in-law Bryan, and grandson Joe. (As you probably have heard from Jim, 10-year-old Joe is a pretty good bicyclist. When he visited last November, Joe and Bryan were beating him up a few hills because he was riding his old fat-tire bike. This time he came prepared with his Seven!)

We rode only a short distance before we came to a little hill up the other side of an underpass. Jim kicked it as did Joe and Bryan. Jim's wheel caught on something and he couldn't stop his front wheel from wobbling. He ran into a curb and landed on his left side. Joe was right behind him and ran over him, taking a flip himself.

Jim broke his right wrist, clavicle, scapula, and a rib. (Joe only had a few scratches.) He had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital, accompanied by Rebecca. He was in a lot of pain, but was alert and talkative. He gave the ER staff a hard time because they'd cut his ASSOS bib shorts off. They set the wrist, but couldn't set the other fractures. They scanned his neck and abdomen to make sure he hadn't hurt anything else, which he hadn't.

He went up to the floor and was doing well late Saturday, when we left. We visited him early Sunday morning and he was again alert and talkative. So much so that he got out of bed to walk the hallways. His doctor started to taper off his morphine. We came back Sunday evening after he'd again walked the halls, this time with the physical therapist. He started to feel nauseous and, when he wretched, really hurt his broken rib again. He was tired and in more pain, so they returned his morphine to the level he'd had in the morning. He was still alert, though, and joking with the nurses when we left in the evening.

Which is why it was such a shock to get a call at 4:30AM Monday telling us that he'd been found unresponsive and was being resuscitated. Even more surprising is that the nurse had talked to him only two minutes before finding him unresponsive. There was no sign of a heart attack or pulmonary embolism, either. After the resuscitation, he was unconscious.

He was taken to the ICU and, all day Monday, was given any number of tests, including a CT of his head. He'd sustained significant brain injury, partly due to the lack of oxygen during the attack and partly due to a brain bleed he sustained as a result of the resuscitation. Our neurosurgeon friend, Steve Hysell, evaluated Jim and told us that he'd never regain normal brain function. Jim had made very clear his preferences regarding extraordinary measures being taken to keep him alive. For this reason, he was taken off of the ventilator at 4:00PM in the arms of his daughter, grandson, and son-in-law.

There is no reason that the injuries he sustained in the bike crash should have caused Jim to die. He was in incredible physical health, especially for a 72-year-old. We think the most likely explanation is that Jim was still unsure how to live without the love of his life, June. Although he had friends and family who loved him, he talked of being "superfluous" and even "non-teleological". Perhaps he woke in pain, thought of the long recovery he'd need to get through, thought that he might have trouble riding his bike again, thought of being dependent on his loved ones, and decided it was time to go be with June.