Honoring Life, Celebrating Memories

The title of this post

is from Hutchens
Mortuary in Florissant, Mo

On July 4, 2009 our

family lost Joshua

Koetting
The family will be
honoring his life and

celebrating
his memory this Sat.

Josh was 36 and lost his battle with cancer. The Lance Armstrong Foundation heard of Josh, Lance sent a signed copy of his book. The foundation kept track of his battle, when they found out of his passing, they put a stone with his name on it at the La Tour de France that Lance Armstrong is doing right now, it is past the 16 mile marker. I thought this very touching of the foundation

The picture of the flowers are the flowers we have sent for the funeral, we have also had a tree planted in Josh's memory (for those who are interested in planting a tree for a friend or loved one you can go to www.arborday.org) We have planted trees for the last 12 years for our friends and family. We feel that a part of them is still living and growing in one of our national forests by doing this.

We are unable to attend the funeral because of our work but my in laws are representing us and my husband's family understands. Josh had a great sense of humor, he was an avid boater and sky diver. He was a computer whiz. He was an up beat and postive person up to the very end. We will miss him.

Dr. Juan A. del Regato

I have been working on a book about my family, some of my posts are from the research I have done. My book is going slow, people are wondering why its taking so long. Well, two reasons (1) I want to get the facts right because so misinformation has been printed and the second one is I am finding really neat people doing this and I follow their path trying to find out more about them!

I also am finding a lot of people have passed away, one such person was my dad's and mine doctor, Dr. Juan A. del Regato. I remember him as if it was yesterday, he was a very tall man (that could be because I was a tiny child and everyone was tall to me) :)

I didn't care for him at first because he did a lot of tests on me and they were painful but when I went to his office with my father for my father's cancer treatments, I liked him.

Dr. del Regato was born in Cuba on March 1, 1909. He attended medical school at the University of Havana and recieved his medical degree from the University of Paris. He invented the device that gave effective radiation treatments in the early era of radiation oncology.

He came to the U.S. in 1939, he worked for the Chicago Tumor Institute then went to Washington and worked in the private practice of Dr. Edwin Merritt then went to the National Cancer Institute.

In Jan. 1943, he took a position as a radition oncologist at Ellis Fischel State Cancer Hospital in Columbia, MO. It was here in 1948 that my father met him and decided to build a cancer hospital in Colorado Springs. Dr. del Regato became director of that institution, the Penrose Cancer Hospital.

Dr. del Regato arrived in the Springs before the hospital was done, his offices were on Garden of the Gods Road. The building still stands there today but another company occupies it. One day my father and I were at his office, my dad was getting one of his treatments.
My father asked the good Dr., "Do you have any children?"
"Yes, I do" he replied. The conversation went on and we found out his children were in Cuba.
My father said, "It's not good for a man to be without his children. I'll see what I can do to get your children to you."

And my dad did, my father died before Dr. del Regato's children came to America but when they did, one of his daughter's was allowed to come see me. She wanted to thank the daughter of the man who made it possible for her to be here and she did. But, I didn't get a chance to thank her for her father, who made it possible for my daddy to live a little bit longer. Both men were great men.

If you'd like to read about Dr. del Regato you can through this link http://www.juanadelregatofoundation.org/Biography/NYTObituary.html