At a glance, handsome Renard Ricks was the smartest looking 61-year-old in the room. An eye-catcher.
Groomed immaculately, a fulltime smile welcomed visitors as the enveloping glow from a nearby computer screen illumined his lineless face.
With his devoted wife Wana, a perfect hostess, supportively at his side, almost always within touching distance, you expected the stick-straight U.S. Army veteran to stand and vigorously shake your hand.
He didn’t.
He couldn’t.
Friends, relatives, acquaintances and strangers streamed onto the grounds of a South Bay car dealer two Saturday evenings ago to raise funds for body-draining amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, a rare degenerative disease with no known cure. Victims and their families sadly are converted into passive, helpless observers.
When those closest to Mr. Ricks ringed their arms around his shoulders, he smiled back – or seemed to — in acknowledgement.
Though Mr. Ricks couldn’t speak, greeters knew he understood them. He told them so on his Tobii eye-gaze-operated computer.
Even though the most brilliant scientific minds on the planet have been 100 percent stumped by the random cause and non-existent cure for ALS, other geniuses have devised a computer where a paralyzed person can write desired responses with his eyes.
When you sensed Mr. Ricks was thrilled you came tonight, you had struck a bullseye. He said so on his computer screen.
Although the motor neuron disease began affecting Mr. Ricks’s body three years ago last March, on this night his radiant appearance suggested he was fighting ALS to a standstill.
No one in the room realized the end was so near.
Closing Day
The call came yesterday that Mr. Ricks had died over the weekend. His funeral will be Friday afternoon at 1 at Eternal Valley Memorial Park Mortuary, Santa Clarita.
