Katee, Ami and I are missing Darrin more than we thought possible. I guess I was hoping that since it has been 8 months without him that we would somehow not feel the loss so strong, but not true. Darrin always loved Christmas and all that came with it. We have come to the realization that nothing will ever be the same. We know we must make new memories while cherishing our old ones. We want to thank you all for your continued prayers. People often ask how we survived it all and our response never changes, GOD!!! He is so wonderful and I am so thankful to know Him.

As many of you know and some may not, I moved to Kearney, Nebraska in August. Some would say it was too soon…..but I put the house on the market thinking it may not sell for a year and needless to say it sold right away. People ask how do you sale a house in this economy, my response again, GOD. I found a beautiful home here in
Kearney and have spent the last few months making it feel like home.

My sister and her family are here, with the girls off to college and
all of Darin’s family in KS and MO, I felt the need to be close to my family. I am half way for all, we have had many visits and this has helped. Ami has completed her first semester @ UNC and Katee will start back to UNC in Jan. We see each other about every 3 to 4 weeks, so the move has not kept us apart.

Katee has a Petscan on Jan 9th, we are praying for good news!!! She is feeling more and more like her old self, the sparkle is in back in her eyes and her hair is beautiful and thick again.

We do not understand why all this has happened. We probably never will.
What we are so thankful for is that Darrin is no longer in pain , that
Katee is doing great and that we have our continued faith in God.
Also for all our friends and family who have stuck with us through it
all. We pray God’s blessing on each of you this Christmas and
throughout the new year. We will give you the update in Jan on Katee’s results.

Please note my e-mail change!!!!!!!!!
kimsclock@gmail.com

Merry Christmas to you all.

Much Love,
Kim Clock

Bill Dayton

—————————————————————————–

Hello!!!
 
I finally have a phone and e-mail again!!  As you all know I’m very good at the computer but I sure missed e-mail.  As with all move there are things that don’t go as planned (like taking nearly 3 weeks to get a phone), but all in all the move went smoothly.  Ami has been here twice and Katee once.  The girls had not seen our new home before I moved, so I was extremely happy when they loved it as much as I do.  Being close to my sister is wonderful, we have already done so much.  My mom stayed with me for two weeks and helped unpack.  she was amazing, helping me move and clean our CO home and then come here and helping me get settled into our new one.  That is unconditional love!!!!  Trudy and Wil also came for a few days, Wil hung some new light fixtures for me.  Everyday I get up and think what a blessed woman I am.
 
Thank you for the cards.  I kept thinking I would get back to you in e-mail.  

I am tired but happy, now that I am getting settled the realization of Darrin’s passing is more real. Not so many distractions.  I am so thankful for a God who loves us, and has prepared for us a home beyond this one, and helps us with the pain of losing those we love so much.
 
The girls seem to be dealing with all this as well as one could expect, I’m not sure we will ever understand it all.  We know that we have been held up in love and prayer, we also know everyone goes through their own battles that leave them with loss and wondering why, please let me encourage you that you are never alone and that God will help you through those hard times, just ask. Darrin has been gone almost 5 months, this is so hard to believe. I think we miss his smile and his laughter most, we are thankful his suffering has ended and also thankful we carry all of our memories of him with us. 
 
I will say see ya for now and will try to keep you up on anything that’s new with the girls and myself.

Kim Clock

—————————————————–

Hello,
 
Just wanted to give a quick update.  Let me start by saying how amazing God is!!!
 
We’ll start with Katee, She had a PET scan and a colonoscopy and is free of cancer.  I’m sure you can imagine how very excited we all are.  Katee has returned to Greeley and has been blessed with a wonderful job.  I could now pick her up on my individual health plan because she was preexisting, so she had to be picked up on a group plan.  Her job provides full medical, dental, and eye and will pay for college if her grades are B’s or above.  She is doing so well and as time passes we see more and more of that sparkle in her eye.  Thank you for your continued prayers!!!!!
 
Ami will be going to UNC on the 20th.  This summer has flown by.  She is excited to start this new adventure, to those of you who know Ami, you know it will be an adventure, she loves life and wants to enjoy every moment, she will be only about 6 blocks from Katee.  This brings me peace.  They are two peas in a pod and I am so thankful they will be together a little longer.  Walking through this cancer journey these past few years has bound our family closer than ever.  We know that this is not always true with all families and we realize how blessed we are.
 
As for me, well, our house has sold.  The normal response to this is usually, “in this market?”  Most of you know that selling the house and me moving to Kearney was something Darrin and I had agreed on, I however realize how not in control I am when it comes to, anything.  I ask for God’s leading and things to happen in His time.  He is so very Faithful.  I had an offer within 10 days, a month later the couple backed out and two days after that I had a cash offer. So I will take Ami to Greeley on the 20th, the movers come to pack on the 21rst and they load on the 22nd.  They deliver to my house in Kearney on the 25th.  Yes I found a perfect house in Kearney,  another answer to prayer.  As I mentioned before we are a blessed family.
 
Someone asked us this question a few months before Darrin passed.  If you could tell the world one thing you have learned through cancer, what would it be?
 
We all agreed that the answer would be,  How big God is, He is faithful and gracious and loving and always provides.  I know I’ve said it before but I’m going to say it anyway.  Through all the heartache there have been so many blessings.  We miss Darrin in ways you cannot imagine but we are also so thankful that his suffering has stopped.  Darrin said so many times that if one person was lead to Christ because of his journey, that it was worth all he and we went through.
 
I know I end all my e-mails the same way, so why change now.  Thank you for your prayers and love and for all the encouragement you have shown our family, we could not have walked this alone.  So thank you, thank you.
 
Kim Clock

 It’s sad to see Kim go, but we are happy that she’ll have family close by in Kearney.  She’ll be moving out around August 2008.

There is so much going on , Katee is moving back to Greeley, she has found a job and is excited to be “out” and on her own again.  She will have a colonoscopy in August, and we a praying for a good report.  She has had no issues and is feeling more like herself again.  Ami will start UNC in the fall, she is a bit unsure but I know she will thrive. 

We have put the house on the market so we will let you know how that goes.  As for everything else we take one day at a time and allow ourselves the tears when they come.  We know so many of you have continued to hold us in prayer and for that we are so thankful.  Having our faith, we know Darrin is doing so well now and that brings us comfort beyond all understanding.  We just wanted you to know that we are all in all doing ok. 

Kim Clock

———————————————————————————————-

When Darrin Clock was diagnosed with cancer, his first thought was for a winning battle.Clock was diagnosed with Leiomyo Sarcoma, a smooth muscle cancer typically found in children.
His team of medical specialists immediately began aggressive treatment, which included removing his pectoral muscle – where the disease was originally discovered, followed by aggressive radiation and chemotherapy.As he followed doctor’s orders for his medical treatment, Clock found his best medicine in a heavy dose of old-fashioned family love – the kind that would sustain the man his wife calls “a warrior” through his final days.

Before Clock would lose his battle against the deadly disease at age 42, he would build a legacy of faith in a family that can never ask, “what if?” As Clock approached the inevitable door to the afterlife, his family watched a man who left no stone unturned in his journey to the end, where God’s hand carried him in every way.

“Darrin never wavered from his faith, he believed surely there’s something I can do in 40 more years,” said Kim Clock, his wife of more than 20 years. “He never wavered in his belief in his faith or hope, never.”Clock endured months of treatment between his diagnosis in May 2006 and one day in July 2007, when doctors at the Mayo Clinic advised him to enjoy his final days with his family. He and his bride held each other as they wept at the news.“I said to my daughters, I’ll give him a week before he goes back to chemo,” said Kim Clock. Kim had married Darrin when the two were 19 and 20 years old. The two had no way of knowing fate would soon send Darrin another reason to live.

On Aug. 1, 2007, the couple’s oldest daughter, Katee, was diagnosed with colon cancer. The news led Darrin back to a new oncologist, who would treat father and daughter as Darrin set a fighting example for Katee.

The decision would open another window of hope, with different kinds of miseries.

“It was horrible,” Kim recalls.

The doctors tried chemotherapy treatments new to Darrin’s system, all the while cautioning the family the effort would, at best, prolong the inevitable. Indeed, Darrin’s tumors continued to grow as he and Katee, then 20, underwent treatment. By Dec. 2007, Darrin endured surgery to remove tumors that would no longer respond to most of the chemicals, Kim said.

Darrin continued to work at the Town of

Shortly after Katee’s uplifting report, Darrin’s doctors discovered the source of pain in his hip bone. The cancer had spread to his bone and lower-body muscles. As Kim would say, “it was spreading all over.”

On March 19, at the family home, Darrin suffered mild seizures. A brain scan the following morning delivered the hardest blow.

The cancer had reached his brain.

“That news devastated him to a point I never …” Katee lost the words as she recalled what came next. “Everything else would hit him and he would say ‘we can beat this.’ When it went to the brain you saw not a fear but maybe an acknowledgement that ‘I might really lose this battle.’

“We would talk about the future, he never quit talking about it – that he was going to have a future and he was going to be OK,” she said. “He did not accept he was going to die in any way.”

Darrin underwent gamma knife surgery on April 9, a procedure Kim describes as a “new age halo” that looks like a “medieval torture device.” A scan revealed the brain tumors had grown 33 percent in little less than three weeks. The doctor told the family the effect of the cancer would soon begin to impact Darrin’s mobility.

When hospice came into the family’s life that month, Darrin asked what was expected of him. The response was “your job is to be comfortable.” When he asked what was expected of his wife, the response was “to love you.”

“That’s all I want her to do,” Darrin responded.

Kim will celebrate her 24th wedding anniversary this November without the husband she calls a “big man with a big personality and a big heart.”

“That’s a lot of man to lose,” she said. “My true love.”

Darrin chose April as his month to go to avoid Katee’s 21st birthday on May 10 and Ami’s high school graduation later the same month, Kim said. He passed peacefully April 22, with his wife, daughters, father and brother by his side.

Katee celebrated her birthday with a full day of swimming and dinner with friends while the family plans another celebration at Ami’s May 23 graduation. Her graduation day is the same date as Darrin’s birthday.

The celebrations must continue for a family whose leader wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You can’t be a weak family with such an amazing man,” Kim said. “Because of that we don’t have those ‘what ifs?’ You know everything he could have done, everything the doctors could have done, is done. You can’t be wimpy when you have such a strong person leading you, otherwise you wouldn’t survive very long.

“It’s very hard to be here without him but I know he would be really mad if we let this stop us and we didn’t go on with every day,” she said. “He would say ‘hey you woke up today, you have something to do.’ ”

Kim said she is eternally grateful for the support, prayers, kindness, generosity and love the family has received from the circle of friends and coworkers who filled Darrin’s life, she said. She counts on her faith, a presence she learned has grown in her life, to pull her through the coming years.

“I learned how big God is. He’s faithful and he is a provider and a comforter and He is just amazing,” Kim said. “Darrin and Katee learned you live today … you don’t want to put things off. We want to enjoy life and live today. That’s what we learned too, you have one day, today.”

303-663-7162 | rmoore@ccnewspapers.com

4881 Cherokee Drive (click here for directions)
Castle Rock, Colorado 80109

For more information, call the church offices at 303.688.0777

I wanted to let you know that Darrin Clock passed away today (Wednesday April 23, 2008).  He was such a great, wonderful individual and we all hated to see this happen.  Darrin fought his cancer to the very end and never gave up.  We are all very saddened by this news and give our condolences to the Clock family.

Bill Dayton

Kevin’s Final Numbers!  Congratulations Kevin.  He finished in just 11hours, the top contender finished in 8 1/2.  Pretty amazing for his first triathlon.   Just for comparison, I hiked 13 miles around Rampart Range Reservoir and it took me 9 hours for 13 miles.  Kevin ran 26 miles in FOUR (4) hours! WOW!  Plus rode a bike for 5 hours and swam for an hour.  WOW WOW WOW! 

SWIM  BIKE   RUN   OVERALL  POSITION
1:06:54 5:52:54 4:26:46  11:37:29  308

RACE LEG DISTANCE PACE POSITION
TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:06:54) 1:45/100m 438
FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 36 mi. (3:02:18) 19.84 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi. (5:03:47) 18.27 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 39 mi. (7:06:19) 19.10 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (5:52:54) 19.04 mph 384
FIRST RUN SEGMENT 3.5 mi. (7:39:49) 8:18/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 8.5 mi. (8:56:27) 9:00/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 8.5 mi. (10:36:04) 11:43/mile
RUN FINISH 5.7 mi. (11:37:29) 10:46/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (4:26:46) 10:10/mile 308

But Darrin also shared with me some more news about himself.

He said that the cancer is winning and he’s losing the battle.  His driver’s license has been revoked and so he can no longer take himself to the doctor appointments.  His doctors are giving him until May at best, and Darrin’s asked them to do anything to keep him alive until his daugthter Aimee can graduate from High School.  Darrin would like to be there for that.

Darrin may start 2 new chemotherapies to see if it buys him any more time in the next month or 2.  There’s no guarantees, and I’m not sure what chemos these are – but I suspect they are the very old chemos that weren’t given much hope of working.  But at this point, Darrin’s willing to try anything.

The doctors did not remove all of the brain cancer, as it had grown larger than they planned for treatment, and Darrin is also have more and more problems with breathing because of the cancer spreading in his lungs.  He’s also having difficulty walking because of the cancer in his brain and hips.

Please pray for Darrin and his family, this is a very difficult time for him.  I asked if there was anything we could do for Darrin, and at this point he said please just pray for them!

WGD