Dan was 6 ft. 5 in., a big, strong man. Shortly before he was diagnosed with ALS, he went on a canoe trip and actually lifted some of the boats out of the river. He said later that even at that point he felt something was wrong in his body, but it was not evident to anyone else. His strength was impressive.
That strength made it seem especially cruel that he would be struck by ALS and become so dependent. In just about 6 months, he went from that independent, capable, strong man to one of incredible weakness. When his nose itched, he had to ask his wife to scratch it for him. Yet, his motto, and what is now written on his gravestone, was "His grace is sufficient for me." He astounded us with his humility and grace. Once when my sister talked about feeling bad, he asked why, she answered, "Well, you know," and he had to think a while before he realized, "You feel bad for me? You don't have to feel bad for me! All these people are coming and visiting me, it's good." He even said he should write a book about his experience because he found so much humor in it.
I remember, too, that Dan expressed his humility years earlier when his son James was born with a birth defect, a syndrome that resulted in James being born with no thumb, missing a bone in his arm, missing a kidney and muscle cover on one side of his body. Dan told me, while James was still an infant, that at first he felt angry with God about this. He said he went outside, looked at the sky and yelled at God. But after a while of asking, "Why me? Why me? Why would this happen to me?" he started asking, "Why not me? Why should it happen to someone else?"
In those times of heartache and suffering, Dan showed humility. He leaned on God's grace for all his strength.
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