A lot of things have happened over the last few years, so I figured I’d go ahead and document them.

• On May 2, 2017 my father, Eino Lilback, Jr passed away. He was 75, and the person I looked up to the most. Due to flight delays, I didn’t make it in time, though the taking his body (he wanted it donated to science) waited until I got there after midnight. It was really hard on me and Judy (my stepmother), I spent a month with her. I’m tearing up just writing this, 3+ years later.

• Alex Harner, my best friend for over 30 years, passed in Oct 2019. His father purchased him a house as part of his inheritance and I’m living in a basement apartment. His father and I found him in bed, cold and without a pulse. It was very hard for a long time. In the three months after I had no way to relieve the pain but eat, and I gained over 30 lbs (back to what I’ve been most of my life).

• in August 2018, it was discovered I had a heart blockage. I underwent a double bypass. That was a hard recovery (alongside dialysis), but my cardiologist said he’d never seen anyone recover as fast as I did.

• In summer 2018, my kidneys failed. I knew it was coming, just not that fast. I want on peritoneal dialysis (through a tube in my gut) for 10 hours a night, not able to skip a nights. That made that year the first Christmas I wasn’t in Orange with my family. Fortunately, my brother offered one of his kidneys before I could even ask. The transplant was on Jan 8, 2019. I felt like a completely new person, and lost over 50 lbs.

• My mother, Edith Risher, passed away on March 19, 2020. I got a call late the on the 18th, and I was able to book a flight to Houston the next day. Unfortunately because of COVID-19, visting hours were shortened and I couldn’t see her. I went the next day, but she wasn’t conscious. Her nurse told be she spent the previous day, eager that I was on my way. But I sat down next to ker, held her hand, and I told her I loved her. Her face broke out the biggest smile I’d ever seen. There was no question that I was willing to risk covid so I could be with her.

• In May 2020, I had to have follow up surgery due to complications with my urethra due to the transplant. I’d had a neph tube for over a year to act as a stent. They removed the tube and did something to give me a new, clear line to my bladder. I can’t remember exactly what they did, but it left a foot long scar on my abdomen.

Since then, I’ve kept working Rc² along with some work on a b2b website for a client I’ve worked for about 20 years. It was written in Java 1.1, so we’re planning a major overhaul starting in January. I’ve also started dabbling on a couple side projects that I’ve had an itch for.