Healthwatch: Jerry Coleman and Erik Beckjord
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 4th, 2008
The news seems bad for two individuals involved with cryptozoological and anomalistic efforts in recent years.
Erik Beckjord, who reportedly has been in and out of remission for his cancer, has taken a turn for the worse, he is telling his email correspondents.
Beckjord sent out word in recent days…
To all, my time may be at hand, so I sending out assets : out films, photos, etc,
to people who are on my side. expect such in the mail or parcel post, Fed Ex, etc.
u can sleep here if yoi will help send stuff,. car is helpful. urgent car help.
Sad news too, indeed, comes from my brother Jerry Coleman (at right, above, dressed as a “local” and below), author of Strange Highways and More Strange Highways, famed Lawndale and Carter Farm investigator; he’s gone public that he has cancer.
Jerry made the announcement online on April 25, 2008:
I just learned today that I have cancer. Everything comes in threes so they say ~ my mother died last week, my brother, Bill was rushed to the hospital and now me. It has not been a good month ! NOT !!!
And then on May 19th, Jerry wrote:
On May the 27th, I am having major surgery for cancer.
I am terribly upset about my brother’s condition, and wish him well, of course. It is throat cancer of some sort, and I hope the doctors got it all.
I wish EB no pain, swiftness into a return to health hopefully, and perhaps his is merely a scare and not the end.
Sadness, as this news flows into the soul.
After Death
After death the wicked cease to be troublesome
And all who are weary have forever to rest.
People who apply their heart to seek out wisdom,
Are lovingly remembered by all they have blessed.
~ by Tom Zart, 2007.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Thanks for the update Loren. We know it was hard to write but as usual yours is a class act. We all wish your family well and hope for a speedy recovery for your brother.
EB will always be controversial and I wish him no ill and hope the best for his health. His situation as reported appears to be really serious and a cause for concern.
Take care and Happy Fathers Day.
Thank you for that update, Loren. I think of you and your brother as two amazing friends and it broke my heart to hear this news from him. Throat cancer can be beat. Just ask Jack Klugman.
Your friend
Wishing your brother a speedy recovery and full remission.
Cancer treatments are amazing nowadays. An acquaintance recently finished a course of radiation treatments on cancer in his neck. Apparently, it’s beaten.
Another friend was told by doctors about 5 years ago that he’d probably be dead by now with a marrow cancer. After treatments a couple of years ago, they are almost ready to certify him as cancer-free.
Each individual’s case is their own, but the overall picture of modern cancer medicine is quite encouraging.
Sending out positive thoughts, best wishes and a prayer.
Both your brother and Mr. Beckjord are in my thoughts and prayers. Keep us posted on their progress.
Hey, Loren, I feel so very sorry for your brother & Erik Beckjord having cancer. Maybe the cancer will go in remission. I’ll be praying for both researchers. Thanks, bill 🙁
Loren, my best wishes and hopes for you and your family, and for Mr Beckjkord.
It has to be a rough time for you, Loren, to have so recently lost your mother and then suddenly find both your brothers seriously ill. I wish Jerry a speedy recovery and hopefully the surgery that he has had will completely eliminate the cancer. And of course I wish the best possible outcome for Erik Beckjord as well.
Cancer is a brutal disease, but it’s not the automatic death sentence that it used to be. My dad smoked from the age of 8 and probably “chewed” from an even younger age; during the time when he was a child, you seldom found a little mountain boy without his “chaw”. He also worked as a sheetrock hanger all his adult life, and he was continually exposed to asbestos and rock dust through that occupation. He quit smoking about 15 or 20 years ago, but the damage was done. He retired from work at age 70 when he was diagnosed with terminal, metastatic, inoperable lung cancer. He could not even receive chemo due to the location of the cancer.
We hillbillies are stubborn though. Dad threw every ounce of the strength he had left into fighting the cancer. He has had dozens of radiation treatments, and he began taking Tarceva, which the doctors said might slow the growth of the tumors. Now they believe that he is among the fewer than ten percent of patients in whom Tarceva actually causes the tumors to shrink. It has not prevented new tumors from metastisizing, and the cancer is still there, in his lungs and elsewhere, but Dad is still going strong, a year and a half after having been given a few weeks to live. He’s still a very sick man, rail thin, but he has lived to come back home to the hills and see his family, and to see his newest great-grandaughter born earlier this year.
So, Jerry and anyone who has to hear that dreaded diagnosis of cancer, hang in there and don’t give up. New drugs and new treatments are advancing every day.
And everyone, please participate in worthwhile things such as the ACS Relay for Life. It’s true that any single contribution, whether of money or of time, is small compared to the scope of the problem. Well – a drop of water is small too, but add it to many other drops of water and you have a force that can move a mountain.
Cancer is beatable. You CAN lick it.
Heck, start making plans for the rest of your life.
Plan on living a long life.
Just a bump in the road.
As was said in the Batman movie: “Why do we fall? To pick ourselves up.”
Now go and make plans.
I’m really sorry to read your brother has cancer. May he recover from this ordeal and his health be restored.
My best wishes for Mr. Beckjord also.
Loren – I will keep your brother in my prayers and I wish him a full recovery. My father was diagnosed with lung cancer 2 years ago, and he is still with us and his cancer is currently in remission. I sincerely hope Jerry’s surgery was a complete success, and that you and he can continue your Fortean pursuits for years to come.
Loren,
I will be thinking of your brother and praying on his behalf. Likewise, I wish Mr. Beckjord all the best: however one judges his contributions to cryptozoology (and I have always judged them somewhat skeptically), he is, like Jerry, a curious mind, and the world needs all of those it can get.
Loren, I too wish Jerry a quick recovery. It has been a tough year for you Loren and my heart goes out to you and your family once more. My prayers go out to the whole family while Jerry Coleman recovers.
My prayers go out to the Beckjord family also. I lost my Father to terminal cancer in 2002.
Sincerely, William Ballard
I currently have a friend whose been diagnosed with cancer, and he has an estimated few weeks to live. I personally know how hard it is to know people with cancer. I only hope your brother’s operation will go smoothly.
I’m somewhat new to cryptozoology, so I don’t really know too much about Beckjord, but may he also recover from his troubles as well.
Sad news indeed!
My best wishes and prayers to all.
Being diagnosed with cancer is one of the most terrifying and difficult things in life to face. I lost two good friends to mesothelioma too soon. My mother had a benign meningioma removed from her brain a few years back. My uncle is currently recovering from surgery that removed a kidney that was totally encapsulated by a large tumor. Fortunately it didn’t metastasize elsewhere.
Even though things look bad when it comes to cancer theres always hope because of newer medicines and technologies to fight this dreaded disease.
My heartfelt prayers to Erik Beckjord and to Jerry Coleman. It is never easy but never give up.
I echo what the others have said. Hang in there, be there for him. Good cheer and affection do wonders for the immune system. Cancer is strange stuff, but they are starting to get a handle on what it is, and how it works (fascinating stuff about the lipid cell membrane, incorrect information being sent, and so forth), and are moving past the old brute force methods of killing it. I know many times more people who are cancer survivors than of those who didn’t make it.
I wish both men a full recovery. Peace be with them during this trying time.
Loren,
My heart felt sympathy for the plight of your brother. I read his accounts of researching the Carter Farm with great interest and admiration for his unbiased approach. My wife lost an uncle to throat cancer but he was a long term survivor after the initial surgery so there is hope for good news as well.
I, like many, have had words with Beckjord, and it would be a lie to say I was a fan. Yet I have undergone a couple of scares with this disease, both of which turned out to be nothing. My wife has had two biopsies, hers too were benign. Having said that I wish Mr. Beckjord all the best as I would not wish cancer on my worst enemy. As it happens, he is the second such adversary this week I have learned has the disease. I wish them both well. It is by the grace of God that I am not in their shoes.
It is too bad that we cannot remember, when we are bickering, that one day we will no longer be here…maybe sooner rather than later. Life is indeed too short to maintain ill feelings.
We all, myself included, should keep this fact in mind.
John Johnsen