Family: Open Heart, Unconditional Love, Boundaries

My son. Mike, died 19 years ago, age 26. Wasn’t born with a tattoo telling him how long he had to live. Blood, married, intentional families. Love & boundaries.

Proem 2021

I wasn’t born with a tattoo on my ass telling me how long I have to live. Welcome to the third anniversary of Health Hats, the Podcast, episode number 149. On November 15th, 2018, the first episode honored my son, Mike Funk, who died on November 18th, 2002, nineteen years ago, age 26, of metastatic melanoma. Mike, a wise poet, found his best spiritual health in that last year of his life. Hence, the most memorable sentence in my life. I wasn’t born with a tattoo on my ass telling me how long I have to live. I’m grateful to have known Mike, my son, our brother, our friend.

I resurrect this episode to celebrate Mike and celebrate family — blood family, married family, intentional family. Mike was part of our intentional family. He was our son from other parents. Mike and I mused often about family especially in his final year. As you can imagine his intense feelings about his blood family and his intentional family colored those conversations. Ever the poet, we talked about the challenge of family as unconditional love, especially when you’ve been treated badly, neglected, abused, and left. We spoke about boundaries, unconditional…