WILKES-BARRE — The holidays are rapidly approaching, and people everywhere are shopping, cleaning, preparing — to celebrate.
More time should be taken to help others — those people who have no money to shop, no homes to clean and very little to celebrate.
At these times, I call on my late, great friend, Seth Zimolzak, a Make-A-Wish kid who died of cancer in 1999 — a couple months after he graduated from high school.
Seth was an amazing young man who battled cancer for four years before it finally got the best of him. I still have the orange suede shoes Seth wore to his graduation at Northwest Area High School. I wear them in tribute to Seth for all he meant to more people than you can ever imagine.
Most people recently gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving — they sat around a large table of family and friends — all with many reasons to celebrate.
Those celebrations are contrasted by what happened on Thanksgiving as guests at Keystone Mission’s Innovation Centers gathered for their Thanksgiving meal and some of them stood in front of their peers to give thanks.
To encourage an atmosphere of gratefulness, Keystone Mission staff asked if anyone wanted to share what they were thankful for.
Several individuals rose their hand to talk about what God has been doing in their life “despite their current circumstance.”
Did you get that? “Despite their current circumstances.”
Jillian Mirro, Keystone Mission’s communications and marketing manager, said, “Though we may think that without a home or stable job, there wouldn’t be much to be thankful for. Their testimonies were eye-opening, and I believe it gave everyone in that room — volunteers, staff, other guests — a new perspective on their own situation.”
That’s for sure. And that little story brings me back to Seth, who always supported helping those less fortunate.
My fondest memory of Seth was during a Make-A-Wish telethon in 1999 — when Seth was very symptomatic and approaching the end of his earthly life. The cancer would claim his life a month later.
Seth was sitting on a couch about to do a television interview. He stopped me, reached into his tuxedo pocket, and pulled out an envelope.
The envelope contained $1,647 — his graduation money.
I looked at Seth and he said, “Give it to the kids. I won’t need it where I’m going.”
Let that sink in.
That same year, in early 1999, Seth spoke at a dinner — it was about eight months prior to his death. Here is what he told a large crowd of men in tuxedos and women in long gowns.
“After having to deal with cancer for three years, I have learned a great deal of things,” Seth told the crowd. “But the most important thing I’ve learned is the aspect of time. Treasure every moment that you have. And treasure it more because you shared your time with someone special — special enough to spend your time on. And remember that time waits for no one.”
Seth went on to tell everyone to value time — to make every one of our 86,400 daily seconds count because they can’t be carried over to the next day.
Those were profound words from a young man who was dying. Seth, his life and his words, remain with me to this day.
After Seth’s funeral, his parents gave me the orange suede shoes that Seth wore to his high school graduation. He was the last one to graduate that June day — wearing his orange suede shoes.
I often wondered how Seth could be so positive when facing such an awful situation.
But Seth and his Make-A-Wish peers share this amazing level of courage and determination. And they remain positive through all of the doctor’s appointments, treatments, medications — and the worry and uncertainty.
Through his words and his actions, Seth taught us all about how to live — how to be compassionate and how to care about those who need help.
Truly, words to live by.
The post Beyond the Byline: Remember Seth’s words always appeared first on Times Leader.