Eric Samuel Leiser

Chad's cousin Brenda lost her husband early this morning. Eric was only 41 years old, and had been fighting esophageal cancer since early summer 2009. So hard to watch from a distance these past months, as they have been on a terrible roller-coaster of emotions.

In June, Eric was given a very bleak prognosis - told he had only about a month to live.

He beat the odds, giving credit to the special water he and Brenda had begun drinking. Chemo treatments were also underway.

Eric did beat the grim prognosis, yet by fall the cancer had taken up residence in his brain. It was more difficult news. After several weeks of fighting with everything he had, Eric learned that there was little more that the doctors could do. After facing sickness and other ill-effects of ongoing chemo treatments Thanksgiving week, Eric chose to end the frequent trips back and forth between Herscher and the UI Chicago. He declined further interventions.

Last month, when Brenda's mom (Chad's aunt) spent part of a week with us here in Little Rock, we had the promising news that Eric had been able to return to doing some work-outs at the gym, though he did spend a great deal of time in his room/bed.

The news of this morning, though expected following reports of vision loss and deteriorating kidney function, was so hard to hear.

We grieve for Brenda. We grieve for Alex and Max. We feel desperately sad for them all. And we pray.

We pray that Eric took the opportunity to embrace a personal faith in the one true God. God of his Jewish heritage, and God for today.

"For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Isaiah 43:3