I am Mark Purvis
a friend of someone we've lost to ALS
Alabama
David had just gone through a tough divorce and I had been laid off from work so I became his chauffeur, his errand boy and his advocate. I introduced myself to his pulmonologist as "Dave's hetero life mate."
I didn’t even know what ALS was until August of 2018. That was when my best friend of 30 years kept dropping his Sonic fountain drink. Within a month I was taking him to doctors appointments and lift-chair shopping with him. David had just gone through a tough divorce and I had been laid off from work so I became his chauffeur, his errand boy and his advocate. I introduced myself to his pulmonologist as “Dave’s hetero life mate.”
He decided early on he didn’t want to get a tracheostomy which meant he had even less time. We did everything he could dream up. Early on we were able to do road trips pretty easily and he got to see his Chicago Cubs finally win a game. It was kind of a beautiful thing to know that our time was limited and it made me cherish every moment with him. He passed away March 9, 2021. On March 26 of this year we had the t-ball field that he coached little league at renamed in his honor.
