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Robert Lawrence Johnson was a son, a brother, a soldier, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend, and a hero. Bob was respected and loved by many, and nearly four years after his death is still missed more than words can say.
He was the son who, at 18, lost his own father far too early and became the man of the house, a role model to his younger sisters, and a source of great strength to his mother. He attended the United States Naval Academy, and served in the U.S. Navy during the Viet Nam war. He swept a Navy nurse off her feet and married her six months later. He was a loving, supportive father to three daughters, instilling in them the confidence and wherewithal to succeed at anything they hoped to. While formidable to anyone who should dare ask one of his girls on a date, he could be reduced to a puddle of mush in an instant with a single word, “Daddy.” He was a giant teddy bear to his grandsons, who, while very young when he died, still talk about their Grampy with tremendous affection. He was honest, brave, dependable, affable, and above all, loyal, characteristics that earned him friends and admirers during every phase of his life. He could fix almost anything, from broken bicycles to leaky pipes, and made it a priority to be sure that the people in his life knew how special they were to him.
He was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in 2003, and underwent countless rounds of chemotherapy as well as radiation over the course of the next 2 years. Bob was finally confronted with something he couldn’t fix.
As someone whose bone marrow was not a match for a loved one, it is heartbreaking to be told - when you are willing to do anything for your father, mother, sister, or brother - that your marrow is not a match. Bob’s three daughters and two sisters were all tested, but none matched closely enough to donate marrow for him. The National Marrow Donor registry, now called the Be the Match registry, is a tremendous resource for people who cannot find matches within their own families, but it, too, came up without a match for Bob.
Bob’s doctors in New York, working with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, decided to try an autologous bone marrow transplant, in which Bob’s own bone marrow was removed, “cleaned,” and returned to his body. During the time of Bob’s transplant at Dana Farber, his family became aware of many other patients who also needed bone marrow transplants. For some, there were multiple donors on the national registry, dramatically increasing their chances of survival. Bob’s autologous transplant ultimately did not work, and five months later he lost his battle.
We can never know what might have happened had there been a match on the Be the Match Registry, but we do know this: by joining the registry, you can give hope to a family like ours.
Bob died at the age of 63, though there was so much left for him to do. Look into the eyes of his grandsons and now a precious granddaughter, and you will see Bob’s beautiful blue eyes looking back at you. He was a hero to us, and you could be a hero to someone else by giving them a chance at life.
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