With a heavy heart

With a heavy heart, we are sharing that Perry passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 12:15am. Jeanne, Joseph, Christina, and Victoria Zoe were with him, taking turns to hold his hand and let him know that if it was time, it was okay to go. Jeanne heard a sharp breath and stepped in the living room to see that it was his last on earth and his first with his Heavenly Father.

Perry’s final days were quiet. On Tuesday morning, he was awake enough to join us on the patio as all the children returned to Brown Deer to say goodbye. We believe that he was waiting to hear from everyone and once the room emptied out, he took that as his cue.

Talking about his final days, we inevitably step back 7 or 8 years to when it all started with cognitive and motor changes. But even then, we thought it was a lingering impact of his battle with cancer that started 14 years ago. He, in many ways, fought several waves of health impacts and pushed back his lifespan estimates beyond anyone’s best guess. It was all a testament to his inner strength and faith in God that carried him. A heart and lungs trained through a lifetime of physical work and exercise which would sustain him through brutal treatments.

While it would be understandable for him to be angered by the unfairness of it all or to feel robbed of his golden years after decades of perseverance, he instead took on a sweetness and chose to latch on tightly to Jeanne’s care. Always wanting to be within earshot of her, it was clear that if everything were stripped away, he would be satisfied just to be in her arms. Since about 2016, Joseph, Christina, and Victoria Zoe assumed full time roles supporting Jeanne with the business and his full-time, round-the-clock care. We are forever grateful for the deep personal sacrifice of all four.

What is next? Despite years of knowing this would come, we are still piecing together what will unfold. Perry was immediately transported to allow his brain to be studied by Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine at the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease. This is a necessary step to confirm his diagnosis of corticobasal degeneration. Then later this week a private, invitation-only funeral and burial will likely be held. We wish it could be an open invitation, but funeral homes and cemeteries in the Greater Milwaukee Area are restricted to gatherings of 50.

Our desire is to host a drive-through receiving line open to all which would maintain social distancing. We anticipate a date set of Friday, 6/19 or thereabouts. Details will be forthcoming along with a signup, and all the information will be posted here as soon as we know. At least several months from now, we plan to have a more traditional memorial service.

In closing, a thank you. Already so many of you have blessed us with loving messages, food deliveries, and a multitude of other expressions of kindness. It is a testament to the impact Perry had on us all, and we cannot thank you enough. If you have a story or a memory to share, a photo or video, or a note of support, we are saving them all through the rememberingperry.com page. Feel free to pass this news on to others who knew him.

In loving memory of his smile, his heart, and his soul. We look forward to seeing him again one day.

Sincerely,

Jeanne and family