The photo I’ve included is of Matt and his wife, Kacy, along with me and my husband (Matt’s parents). It was taken in November 2012 as we were watching a Nebraska Cornhusker football game at a sports bar in Lee’s Summit. What a great evening. Little did any of us know that 2 short months later Kacy would be calling us from an emergency room totally distraught because a radiologist had just declared that what he saw in Matt’s brain MRI was “the worst of the worst”! Matt was transported to St Luke’s hospital in downtown Kansas City in an ambulance. The very next day Matt was already taking over as the comforter of the family, setting an impossibly high bar for the level of optimism and courage that he would maintain and expect from the rest of us. He got a pass from the hospital, dressed in street clothes and met a very large group of family that had gathered including us, Kacy, their 5 children, his 4 siblings and his sister-in-law and her family at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. What followed was surgery which removed about 95% of Matt’s tumor. Lab results confirmed the diagnosis of Glioblastoma Multiforme brain cancer! After healing Matt started six weeks of daily radiation and temozolomide. In addition to that he was able to qualify for a vaccine clinical trial which is now nearing it’s completion. Throughout the 28 months since his devastating diagnosis, aside from brief periods of “down time”, Matt has work hard at his job as a mechanical engineer for Black and Veatch, he has been a very active and involved member of the New Summit Presbyterian Church, orchestrating a reorganization to keep his beloved church afloat, he has remained a positive and strong leader of his family and he and Kacy have supported many other families who have loved ones with GBM. Matt and Kacy celebrated their 20th anniversary this past December. It was two years after the photo that was taken in the sports bar in Lee’s Summit. Matt is facing his future with courage and grace.