Blog vol 2. 41. With a heavy heart.
The past two months at Burlington Eyecare have been difficult. We lost two very dear people in our practice. On Christmas day, Clint Weisbrod, life partner of Karen, our office manager, died after a five year struggle with cancer. On February 20, one of our doctors, Jerilee Nyman, died after a two year battle with cancer.
One word to describe what we just witnessed: courage. In spite of countless procedures and treatments, and times of hope and possible recovery, then again, setbacks; they carried on, lived , and even “thrived”. Both Clint and Jerilee shared a Christian faith which grew and flourished, even in the driest and most inhospitable of conditions. I marvel at the support and tangible helps that my staff and colleagues expressed and lived out during this period. You have no idea how critical and encouraging your love to them and their families was and still is.
Karen joined our office a few years back and quickly became a key help in the running of the office, and has especially risen to the occasion during this administratively challenging pandemic (don’t know what we would have done without her). With any great person, you usually find a great spouse: Clint. All I can say is that it was a privilege to have shared a few miles of road with him. His inquisitive mind, great sense of humour, and uncanny down-to-earthiness were just a few of his much-appreciated attributes and qualities. At his Celebration of Life, his family quoted from Psalm 8, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place…” Clint was an astronomer and space cartographer and wrote software for planetariums. It was these stars and planets that were also instrumental in pointing him to God. On a clear, starry night, I can’t help but gaze at the heavens and also think of my buddy. Thank you for the time we shared.
Jerilee, Dr. Nyman, was literally family. Her youngest brother married my daughter, and through association and wonderful timing, we gained a great doctor for the practice, and later an aunt for my grandchildren, and a good friend. Dr. Nyman had a significant following at Burlington Eyecare, and it is not difficult to see why, as she was a compassionate and very conscientious practitioner; the work was her wind song. In February, 2020, we got the heart-breaking news from Jerilee that she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. In March, cancer was found in her bones, and a pandemic started. Jerilee, Mark, her husband, and her very supportive family, resolved to fight this thing. And they did just that. Treatments, appointments, tests, lots of prayers, more treatments, struggle. She threw herself into the Bright Run, fundraising for cancer research. It was her hope that she would get back to her patients and her family at Burlington Eyecare, but the disease would not be stopped. At her Celebration of Life, her husband read a Bible verse very close to Jerilee, Phillipians 2:5-6, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;”. Here was gentle Jerilee, lovely Jerilee, needing encouragement to be more humble, more serving. There is not more I can say.
We miss you both dearly. We are inspired by your courage. With courage, we press on.
Til next week,
the good doctor, Dr. Mark Germain, Burlington optometrist
