Help Sebaj: The Final Journey

Sebaj's final weeks and days

It seemed unthinkable as little as three months ago. Sebaj completed his final race. He fought heroically against intolerable pain, struggled through debilitating fatigue and against the effects of the constant need for morphine. He underwent two rounds of chemo, but the cancer was moving too quickly and could not be outpaced.

Sebaj passed away at his friend Yvonne’s house on Monday November 20th at 10:00 a.m. He was on hospice care and surrounded by Mari, Diana, Robina and Yvonne. We held and touched him, played his favorite music and said encouraging things. Or we chatted lightly in the background because we knew he enjoyed our distractions during his darkest moments. We hope it eased his spirit. Just before he passed his sister Jan called and was put on speaker. "When you are ready, ask Mommy, come get me" she said to him calmly and lovingly. Sebaj took his two dying breaths less than a minute later.

Many old friends and family came to reconnect with Sebaj in the weeks leading up to his death and he truly enjoyed and appreciated the time everyone gifted to him. He didn’t want to be a bother or trouble them with his distress, but he needed them and they came. It did not give him back his life, but it eased his suffering. He was grateful. Four days before he passed, he let us know he was ‘ready.’

Before he left us, Sebaj expressed his hope that he could go out the way he lived. His motto was "Prepare to go out on the ride even when you know its gonna rain. The sun may shine after all and then you were not ready!"

We would like sunshine for Sebaj one last time, and we need your help to do it. We have increased the limit of this campaign so we can make it happen and have Sebaj go out with a memorial bang. When he hatched out his plans with Robina in the weeks before his death, he seemed to somehow be looking forward to it. Sebaj, maybe you will be seeing it from somewhere. And if not, you live on in our hearts.

Thank you all for your loving support.