Ride For Life: Book honors former firefighter

Former Clinton firefighter Ben Jess had just turned 42. And he was dying.

Ben suffered intense pain and sorrow, and much love, during the last days of his life in August 1999, after an eight-year battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

I know this because Ben’s loving sister-in-law, Anne (Lingle) Strawser, kept a journal of those last days for her sister, Karen, Ben’s wife.

Without that journal, I never would have known about Ben’s courage and determination, or how he could look deeply into his wife’s eyes and they could speak without saying a word.

I never would have known about his three sons, Curt, Chris and Eric, who stayed with Ben nearly nonstop as he faced the inevitability of his death. I would not have known how those boys held their father’s hand, quietly telling him it was OK to let go.

I never would have sat at my kitchen table, with tears in my eyes, as I read about a Clinton man’s fight against a disease that paralyzes the body and has no cure.

Strawser’s story is truly inspiring, and has been turned into a self-published book called “Ben’s Story: His Journey Home.”

Strawser, of Bettendorf, published the book with editing help from her brother, Rick Lingle, an editor of a Chicago food magazine. All proceeds from the $15 book go to the ALS Association and the Ben Jess Memorial Scholarship Fund, set up by the Clinton Firefighters Local 609.

Jean Horan, a member of Friends of the Clinton Public Library, recently donated a copy of the book to the library in memory of Ben. I highly recommend you check it out, if only to inspire yourself to “never, never, never, never, never give up,” which was Ben’s motto.

You’ll also come away with a better understanding of Ben, a strapping young man who stumbled upon his dream career in 1988 as a firefighter and emergency medical technician at the Clinton Fire Department.

He was dedicated to keeping a muscular physique, and, ironically, his weightlifting underscored his first signs of trouble.

The weights became harder and harder to pick up. His arms and hands started to twitch.

In the spring of 1991, specialists at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., diagnosed Ben with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

ALS is a progressive neuro-degenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. When the motor neurons die, the brain no longer can initiate and control movement.

Most patients in the later stages become totally paralyzed, but their minds remain untouched. In effect, they are trapped in bodies they cannot control.

Ben left the Clinton Fire Department in March 1992 as his disease slowly progressed. He agreed to use a wheelchair in September 1994, and his dependency on others grew.

“Operating his electric wheelchair was one of the few things that he could do on his own at this time,” Strawser writes in her journal.

Ben lived at home, cared for by relatives, until his last hospital stay in August 1999. He couldn’t talk anymore, but he could communicate by using a board with letters on it. His wife would painstakingly point to letters, and he would blink if that was the letter he wanted.

Together, they would spell out short sentences he wanted to say:

“I don’t want to be left alone.”

“Move me over and lay by me.”

“My heart feels heavy.”

“Dying isn’t easy.”

His wife said sometimes, living isn’t easy, either.