An interview with Lyle Merner and written by Michelle Hopkins appeared over the weekend in the Richmond News:
On the mantel in a Steveston home sits a picture of a grinning father, proudly holding his young son. Lyle Merner remembers that day well because his wife, Gabriela, made him stop on the side of the highway so she could take a picture of the pair next to a running creek.
Little did Merner know that just a few months later, the joy he had experienced on that occasion would turn into deep sorrow when he was given the devastating news that he had ALS. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease that kills the upper and lower motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord.
Today, a year-and-a-half later, Merner is a shadow of his former self. He is dying from one of the cruelest diseases known to mankind. Within six months of his diagnosis, the 39-year-old needed a walker; two months later he was confined to a wheelchair, and a few months ago he became bedridden and now breathes through a ventilator. He suffers from the most aggressive form of ALS, one that shows no mercy.
Today, Merner can only move his right thumb. Read more
