A Life Worth Living

"The secret of a good life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of values." ~ Norman Thomas

Tuesday evening, a man named Gary Tebbets received his promotion to the "Church Triumphant". Mr. Tebbets was a music teacher on the faculty of Allen County Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas.

But he was more than that. Much more.

This was the same Gary Tebbets mentioned in a New York Times article after he unsuccessfully petitioned the Missouri Supreme Court to prevent the euthanization of a young woman, Nancy Cruzan. She had been inhumanely denied food and water. According to the Times, "Gary Tebbets of Kansas City, Mo., and Gary Rickman of Kansas City, Kan., asked the State Supreme Court to order that the feeding be resumed, a request denied ... by the State Court of Appeals".

This was also the same Gary Tebbets who fought tirelessly for unborn children, and wrote many articles and letters to the editor of the Kansas City Star protesting abortion. He was an unashamed proponent of the right to life, and unlike so many of us, actually put his words into action.

He was born and lived most of his life in Kansas City, Mo. On Monday night, while driving home from work, he suffered a brain aneurysm and immediately went into a coma, causing his car to run off the road. He had to be cut out of the wreckage and was air-lifted to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas. He never regained conscientiousness.

Gary Tebbets was a Christian.

Gary Tebbets was a Musician.

Gary Tebbets was a loving son, sibling, husband, and father.

Gary Tebbets was my cousin.