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About Greg Gregory is the youngest of three children of Terry & September (me). Gregory was born December 31st, 1984. His sister's name is Angela, and his brother's name is William. Greg loves to laugh, and nearly always has a positive outlook. When he leads prayer at the table, he always thanks God for the beautiful day, and prays that tomorrow will be a sunny day. He likes to be silly, wearing his happy-face top-hat, singing silly songs, and being goofy. When he plays video games, he doesn't follow the rules, he makes up his own. That's because he doesn't play to win, he plays for fun. He drives the wrong way on the racetrack, smashing into the other cars, his character beats up his teammates, and his airplanes crash into the houses. So what if he doesn't win? He's having a blast! He likes silly jokes. He loves God and doing what is right, and doesn't like hearing foul language. He has an extremely curious mind, and is constantly exploring, analyzing, and asking questions. Personal Interests
Greg didn't want me to tell anyone this while he was alive, but I feel like it's important to share this information about him. Greg was born with problems in his facial muscles. He had severe speech problems because of his tongue muscles, and his eyes were crossed because of his eye muscles. Greg couldn't talk until he was 3 and a half years old. It was then that we realized how incredibly intelligent he was. He had actually made up a language using words he could say, and hadn't been babbling all that time after all. Greg was picked on by the other kids his entire life, mostly because of his speech problems, but also because they thought it was funny to see him get angry. Greg refused to hit anyone back, and quickly learned that it didn't do him any good to tell the teacher. The kids would wait until the teacher left the room, or turned her back, then they would pick on him. Greg would let it go for awhile, then his anger would build up, and he would finally explode verbally, but he would never hurt anyone back, so they learned that he was "safe" for them to pick on. Every school has a scapegoat, and unfortunately, Greg was the scapegoat at his school. Once he got in that position, he was unable to get out of it. From about second grade, hardly a day went by that Greg didn't get hit, kicked, spit on, tripped, called names, or have his homework destroyed or his pencils or papers stolen. That was the year he had two surgeries to straighten his eyes. He never complained about the teasing when he got home, and I never even knew about it until around 5th or 6th grade, when he said he didn't think I'd believe him, and he didn't want his mommy stepping in, anyway. As a result, Greg learned to play by himself, developing an active imagination, and lots of ideas for inventions. Only three kids ever came over to play, or invited Greg over to their houses to spend the night. That's three kids in his whole lifetime. Only one boy ever came to Greg's birthday parties, and nobody invited him to their parties. Occasionally, a girl would call, but it would quickly be apparent that it was a prank call, designed to get him interested in her before it turned into a cruel joke. After Greg was diagnosed with leukemia, a bunch of kids in his class wrote notes saying how sorry they were for the way they treated him. Greg saw that they were just trying to make themselves feel better, and it give him mixed emotions. On the one hand, he was glad they were finally being nice to him, but on the other, he was angry that they waited for him to be dying before they did it. Before Greg was first diagnosed with leukemia, his anger and pain had built up over the years to a point where Greg was frustrated, and feeling helpless. After his diagnosis, his outlook changed. One of his new sayings was "Some things just aren't important anymore". Greg was basically a good kid, who was frustrated by his own fear and lack of control over his situation. He didn't curse, and never tried cigarettes, drugs or alcohol. He loved God, and tried his best to do what was right. He would sometimes ask "Why me? After all I've been through, why does this have to happen to me? It's just not fair!" I still wish I knew the answer to that question. Sometimes, someone will say they think it's weird to send someone's ashes into space. Well, it's not the right thing for everyone. It's not the right thing for me when I die, and it's not the right thing for our other kids. However, we didn't do it for ourselves, we did it for Greg. Greg loved rockets, and he wanted to go to space. Greg didn't get to go many places when he was alive. He was never invited to go places with other kids. We didn't go many places as a family. Greg didn't have a lot of opportunities. This was the best thing we could have done for Greg's memory. I would have preferred to let him LIVE his dream, but since we didn't have that option, this was the best way to pay tribute to what he loved. One day, shortly after Greg died, I was trying to take a nap, and I couldn't get to sleep. My mind kept playing over and over, how awful it was that Greg never got to do anything, and he had to get cancer before the kids would be nice to him, he had to get sick before anyone would come over to see him, and he had to die before he got to go to space. He was so nice through it all, and he was always so grateful for every visitor. He just couldn't believe that people would come all the way to the hospital just to visit him, and could never fully accept that someone really did care. I started crying, and asked myself "What difference does it make, sending his ashes up in a rocket? He's dead! Why did we waste everyone's time and money for that? He's not here to enjoy it. What difference does it make now that he's dead? He didn't even live to hear about the idea. He wanted to go to space camp the summer before last, and I told him we couldn't afford it. Last year, Make A Wish would have sent him, but he was too sick. Now that he's dead, he finally gets to go, and I can't even tell him about it." Suddenly, I had a vision, or a thought, or a dream or something, but I was wide awake. I could see Greg looking down, and he knew all about the rocket. Greg looked at me, and with his sincere expression of surprise, he asked "You did this for ME?", and he smiled, and nodded his head, as if to show he felt honored. Suddenly, I was reminded of the story in Luke 16:19-31 of the New Testament, that tells of a man who died and went to Hell. He asked God to have someone put a drop of water on his tongue. God told him that there was a division between Heaven and Hell, and it wouldn't be crossed. The man then asked God to please send someone to warn his brothers about Hell, and warn them to turn from their evil ways. God told him that there was a division between Hell and Earth, and said that if his brothers hadn't listened to God's message when Moses and the prophets told of Jesus, they wouldn't listen to anyone who returned from the dead either. I suddenly realized that if the man could talk to God from Hell, and if he could see what his brothers were doing on Earth, ,and if he could see what others were doing in Heaven, then Greg could also see the rocket launch from his place in Heaven! Then, I realized he DID know what had been done for him after all! He got to enjoy the launch after all, and he got to watch it from the best seat in the house! I can't describe the sense of peace that came over me when I realized these things. I now knew that Greg KNEW he was loved and missed, and that he had heard all the things my heart had said to him after his death. That made me realize that my Daddy, and my friend Billie, and my grandparents, and all the other people I loved in Heaven, had also been able to see me, and hear me, and they all knew how much I missed them. Never again did I have feel sorrow for "unfinished business". I could tell them I missed them any time I wanted, and they would know. It's not the same as praying, it's just telling them something, and knowing they would hear. When the man in the Bible could see what his brothers were doing on earth, he worried about them, and wanted the best for them. He cared about them. I knew in my heart that Greg and Daddy and the others cared about me, too. Now, I had the peace of knowing that I could tell them how much I cared for them and missed them! When I was younger, I used to wonder about Heaven and Hell. I thought
"I wouldn't want to go to Hell, because it would hurt be burned all the
time, and I wouldn't want to be around all those bad people who would make
things even worse with all their complaining and cursing." When I
thought about Heaven, though, I would think "Well, it sounds beautiful, but
wouldn't it get boring just to be singing all the time? I mean, isn't
there anything else to do? If you can't take anything with you when you
die, wouldn't you get bored? Does God want people bowing to him and
praising him all the time? Wouldn't He get tired of that
sometimes?" My friend Marvin Phillips baptized me when I was
younger. I talked to him about Heaven after Greg died. Marvin
replied "September, I don't care if Heaven has streets of gold, or gates of
pearl. I don't care if Heaven is a chicken shack, as long as I can see my
Mother when I get there! I want to meet Jesus, but first, I want to hug my
Mom, and all the other people I love. Jesus will understand if he
has to wait, and we'll have eternity to spend together. And it won't
matter a bit what Heaven looks like, as long as we're with the people we
love." Marvin's words have since become my own. He made me
realize that Heaven isn't about having nothing to do but sing together.
Instead, we'll want to sing because we're so happy! Now, I look forward to
the day it's my turn to go to Heaven, to be with the people I love! Don't
get me wrong, I'm not in any hurry to leave here, because I want to spend time
here with the rest of my family, but when it's my time to go, I'm not afraid,
and I'll be happy to spend eternity mingling with my loved ones. Yep,
Jesus was right. It all boils down to love. The two commandments
that matter are: I love you, Gregory! Looking forward to being with you again someday!
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Sign my guest book! www dot gregsleukemiajournal dot com
forward- slash guest dot htm Richard Simpson is Greg's bone marrow donor Assistance with the web pages was provided by
George Kasica, The Celestis Foundation is seeking your support to offset some of the costs of fulfilling Greg Brown's dream of space flight. Contributions of any amount will help the Foundation to continue the Honorary Commemorative Spaceflight program on the next Celestis launch. Your contribution is not tax deductible, but is greatly appreciated. Please send your contributions to: The Greg Brown Fund All contributions is excess of actual launch related expenses will be donated to the National Marrow Donor Program.
Jill E. McGovern, PH.D. Send us E-Mail! gregb at netwrx1.net Last Updated: 02/11/2009 19:01 |
