Caring about Cary
Donation protected
Cary Butters lost his home, his health and his profession in the last seven months. First came Hurricane Harvey, August 2017, which devastated the coast of southern Texas where Cary lived. Then, after coming to Missouri, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer. The cancer has prevented him from working, so he has no steady income. This is a proud man who has been reduced, through no fault of his own, to challenging circumstances. For those who know Cary, or are moved by his story, please give a little, if you can, to help him out.
For those who want more detail or context about Cary's life, read on.
Cary and I met playing sandlot baseball at the Old Grade School in Bowling Green, MO (where the community center now stands). We figure we must have been about four years old, probably 1962. One of our earliest mutual memories is that we did not get to attend Kindergarten together. He was in the afternoon session, and I was in the morning, and we couldn't understand why our parents couldn't have coordinated this better.
In grade school PE we tried to bean each other with dodge balls. We ate lunch together every day. We went to the State Theater together on Saturday nights. The summers consisted of morning baseball at the park, with the afternoons devoted to harassing local merchants (a.k.a. Ben Larson and J.D Haley, and so forth). The highlight every summer was the Pike County Fair, a whole week's worth of overly sugary treats and giving money to Carnies.
In Junior High, our eighth grade year, we tried to coordinate our classes so that we could take them together. In High School we played opposite each other in the spring musical, The Music Man (1977).
I was the best man at his wedding and he was the best man at mine.
In 1987 we went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, spent a solid week in the wilderness, no electricity, no shelter except what you carried on your back, facing severe, life-threatening weather. And through it all, we never lost faith in each other. You learn a lot about a person in the wilderness, and Cary showed me he had grit.
And that is that same grit Cary is showing right now, fighting bone cancer. He is considered a "high risk" patient because of a defective P17 chromosome which fails to properly signal the P53 genome to attack bad cells. And we were thinking the other day, how good a friend do you have to be to know someone on a chromosomal level?
Cary is a bit stiff-necked about charity or pity. He wants nothing to do with either. At this stage, though, I feel I must speak out on his behalf. Cary has always spread good cheer in his wake. He has worked to serve others. The same day he was diagnosed with bone cancer, I found him at the entrance telling jokes, making other oncology patients laugh. Now that is Cary.
Please help support this man in the fight for his life. And if you message him on Facebook, I bet he can cheer you up.
For those who want more detail or context about Cary's life, read on.
Cary and I met playing sandlot baseball at the Old Grade School in Bowling Green, MO (where the community center now stands). We figure we must have been about four years old, probably 1962. One of our earliest mutual memories is that we did not get to attend Kindergarten together. He was in the afternoon session, and I was in the morning, and we couldn't understand why our parents couldn't have coordinated this better.
In grade school PE we tried to bean each other with dodge balls. We ate lunch together every day. We went to the State Theater together on Saturday nights. The summers consisted of morning baseball at the park, with the afternoons devoted to harassing local merchants (a.k.a. Ben Larson and J.D Haley, and so forth). The highlight every summer was the Pike County Fair, a whole week's worth of overly sugary treats and giving money to Carnies.
In Junior High, our eighth grade year, we tried to coordinate our classes so that we could take them together. In High School we played opposite each other in the spring musical, The Music Man (1977).
I was the best man at his wedding and he was the best man at mine.
In 1987 we went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, spent a solid week in the wilderness, no electricity, no shelter except what you carried on your back, facing severe, life-threatening weather. And through it all, we never lost faith in each other. You learn a lot about a person in the wilderness, and Cary showed me he had grit.
And that is that same grit Cary is showing right now, fighting bone cancer. He is considered a "high risk" patient because of a defective P17 chromosome which fails to properly signal the P53 genome to attack bad cells. And we were thinking the other day, how good a friend do you have to be to know someone on a chromosomal level?
Cary is a bit stiff-necked about charity or pity. He wants nothing to do with either. At this stage, though, I feel I must speak out on his behalf. Cary has always spread good cheer in his wake. He has worked to serve others. The same day he was diagnosed with bone cancer, I found him at the entrance telling jokes, making other oncology patients laugh. Now that is Cary.
Please help support this man in the fight for his life. And if you message him on Facebook, I bet he can cheer you up.
Organizer and beneficiary
Nick Buchanan
Organizer
Boonville, MO
John Bradley Buchanan
Beneficiary