Hi all,

As usual, thank you so much for hanging in there with me over the years (or if you have signed up to read this blog recently).  I figured since part of Scrum is about transparency, I need to let you — my readers, friends, clients,business partners, business competitors, prospective-clients, past-clients, and anyone else who reads this very focused blog — know what has occurred in my personal life over the past six months.

I hope this gives some context about where I have been and where I am planning on going in the future (as you have been getting glances at it recently).

If you do not want to hear about it, you can skip this entry and I will return to “my” version of normal soon.

Last September, my father was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in the lining of his lungs.  It was diagnosed at that point as “stage 4″ (which is bad) and the doctors gave him a prognosis of six months to live.

Throughout the past six months, my father underwent treatments that I hope you or your loved ones will never have to go through in the future.  If you have been through this, you know where I am coming from.  He underwent test treatments at some of the nations finest clinics in both experimental and documented procedures.  He did this all without ever complaining a peep about it.

Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to bring my father and mother up from South Florida to the Gaylord Palms in Orlando during the Scrum Gathering and Trainers/Coaches retreat.  You may have seen him being wheeled around in the wheelchair by either myself or my mother.  He met so many of you there and was incredibly impressed with the quality of people I have decided to surround myself with on both a professional and personal level.  

Most people who saw him did not realize he had just left his last hospital visit when the doctors told him all preventative care was stopping.  The cancer had spread out-of-control to his brain, spine, lungs, blood, bones, liver, and a few other major organs.  Nothing more could be done to fight it.  It was over that weekend with me that he admitted that he finally realized he was dying.  He had an incredible time meeting many of you there, and again, some of the comments I heard from people who met him stated that he did not look like a person ready to die, but a person who knew how to live.

When he returned home from Orlando, Hospice was engaged to start helping around the house with my mother and sister.  Within one week (I arrived), it was so bad that we had to make the toughest decision to place him into a hospice facility. He knew he was ready to go.

Dozens and dozens of people came to visit him while he was in hospice.  Finally after Friday, I had to limit the amount of people coming in to the room so my father could rest.

A week ago Saturday my father spoke his last words to my mother, on their anniversary of their engagement, and asked her, “Will you marry me?” again.  This was after 43 years of marriage to the same man.  These were his last coherent spoken words to my mother.

By Sunday he had slipped into a space where, I have learned, the body and soul (however you want to look at it) starting shutting down in two different — very different — processes.  Up until Monday evening, my father could hear anything we said to him.  I know this because on many occasions we put people on speaker phone up to his ear to say their last goodbyes (this was heart wrenching and very personal) only to get through a few words before the person speaking and my father were in tears.  He could no longer communicate by voice.

A long day later (Tuesday) my father passed away at about 3:08 in the afternoon, with my mother and myself present at his last breath.  This was an incredible experience to be a part of, and I was honored to be there to be with them.

While we were (and still are) in mourning, my parents have a very religious base as Catholics (I am now an atheist, which you can see where some possible contention can come into place).  Since it was considered a “holy week” in the Church, my dad could not be buried until this week.

So, we had a memorial service last night and afternoon (over 200 people showed up) and then had the funeral mass this morning, with the burial to follow.  My great friend John and his wife Laurie hosted a celebration at their house after for almost 100 people (I thank them immensely for doing this for us!).

So.

Why do I bring up this information in a Scrum blog?

Well.

First off… I *know* this is totally off topic.

I also know that you have seen a change in the way things have been coming out of this blog for at least the past six months.  Now that my father has passed away, I thought I’d bring you up on what is happening in my life so you see I was not just putting you on “ignore.”

I had some other priorities.

Like everyone.

I am human.

If you’d like to find out more about my dad, you can visit www.michaelvizdos.com/father (there are a few places we’d like to send donations — anything would be awesome!).

I’ll write a little more tomorrow night about how this experience has changed me, and how it will help me focus on some incredible things that we — as a community — can do in this world to make some changes ranging from minor to totally mind blowing.

Stick with me.

I cannot do this alone.

Are you ready?

The world is about to change.

Well.  

At least our world.

For the better.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos