Bob CollinsChris Rosati, who suffered from ALS, died yesterday after a few more hours of suffering when he decided to have doctors remove the tracheal tube that helped him breathe and stay alive.
There should be more compassionate ways to allow people to die but the issue remains too hot for any politicians to talk about.
If anyone deserved a peaceful exit from this life, it was Rosati, who just wanted to spread some joy in his last years.
Three years ago, the North Carolina man plotted to steal a doughnut truck. Why? He wanted to give away doughnuts.
Rosati said he didn’t have enough time to teach his daughters the life lessons he needed to, but he could teach them to be kind.
He embraced The Butterfly Effect, the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the globe can create a hurricane on the other.
He didn’t have much of a voice left when he told Steve Hartman about his idea to randomly give away $50 at a nearby diner and see where the kindness went. It spread to the other side of the world.
Rosati had no voice left a year ago when he penned a “Note to Self,” but he still had more kindness than most of us.
Rosati said the trach tube had turned him into a monster. It took several hours for him to die yesterday.
“There was nothing he could do or say at the end to negate the gifts he gave,” Steve Hartman wrote about his friend. “I think his daughter Logan said it best when I interviewed her for a 2014 Father’s Day story. ‘He tried to make friends with the world. I think it’s hard to do,’ she said. A few tears started pooling before she finished, ‘I’m proud of him.’
Rosati was only 46 when he died.
