“My brother introduced me to Greg, and we married in 2008. Just two years later, on Labor Day 2010, we were at the zoo on our way to see the bears when Greg squeezed my hand three times. I thought he was saying, ‘I love you,’ but then he fell. It turned out he had a heart problem that we hadn’t known anything about. Because he hit his head so hard when he fell, he also had a subdural hematoma and had to have brain surgery. The following spring, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So we were both sick at the same time. I was going through radiation and trying to take care of him, and he was sick but still trying to take care of me. I know he felt terrible that he couldn't do more.
"We had a lot of support during that time though. Friends told me, ‘You have to accept help’, and I did. I’m very lucky to have a job that allows me to meet so many people in the community and to have so many ‘families’: my musical family, my artistic family, my theater family (especially Playhouse on the Square), my work family, my neighbors---with all of them, there was just an amazing outpouring of love and support. They brought us food, cleaned our house, and just took care of everything. Work was great, especially over the last year of Greg’s life. He was in the hospital for huge chunks of time. My work family said, ‘You don’t need to worry about the job. You need to be there with him. We’ll cover for you.’ Darel Snodgrass, the morning Classical Music Host, took my afternoon shifts so I could be with Greg. I gathered up the radio, our board games, and our favorite CDs and basically moved into Greg’s hospital room. At Christmas time, I took in a little tree.
"I recovered from the cancer, but Greg’s health problems worsened. In addition to the heart and brain surgery issues, he had cancer and liver problems. He passed away on April 1, 2013. I think about him a million times a day, and I miss him all the time."
"We had a lot of support during that time though. Friends told me, ‘You have to accept help’, and I did. I’m very lucky to have a job that allows me to meet so many people in the community and to have so many ‘families’: my musical family, my artistic family, my theater family (especially Playhouse on the Square), my work family, my neighbors---with all of them, there was just an amazing outpouring of love and support. They brought us food, cleaned our house, and just took care of everything. Work was great, especially over the last year of Greg’s life. He was in the hospital for huge chunks of time. My work family said, ‘You don’t need to worry about the job. You need to be there with him. We’ll cover for you.’ Darel Snodgrass, the morning Classical Music Host, took my afternoon shifts so I could be with Greg. I gathered up the radio, our board games, and our favorite CDs and basically moved into Greg’s hospital room. At Christmas time, I took in a little tree.
"I recovered from the cancer, but Greg’s health problems worsened. In addition to the heart and brain surgery issues, he had cancer and liver problems. He passed away on April 1, 2013. I think about him a million times a day, and I miss him all the time."
Kacky Walton is a Classical Music Host for WKNO-FM, Public Broadcasting for the Mid-South. The WKNO website describes Kacky's show as "An afternoon of locally-produced, classical music with NPR news at the top of the hour. Checking on the Arts, an arts interview program airing daily at 3:50 pm, closes the program."
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