Gleason Page #5

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I came up with this

several years ago,

but I decided that rivers

are the source of fire.

Here's my logic.

A fire burns wood

as its fuel,

and this wood

comes from a tree

that drinks from the rivers,

and so, uh, the rivers

are the fuel for the fire.

And, uh,

you are the rivers...

for my fire.

[Van Morrison's

"Crazy Love" playing]

I can hear

her heart beat

For a thousand miles

And the heavens open

Every time she smiles

And when I come to her

That's where I belong

Yet I'm running to her

Like a river's song

She give me love,

love, love, love

Crazy love

She give me love,

love, love, love

Crazy love

She give me love,

love, love, love

Crazy love

She give me love,

love, love, love

Crazy love

She give me love,

love, love, love

She give me crazy

She drives me

a little crazy

[INDISTINCT DIALOG]

[CHEERING]

Today I'm gonna

talk about, uh...

um, my insecurities.

I think I cared a lot about

what people thought of me,

and, uh, suppose I--

I battle that even today.

Um, ahem,

I wonder sometimes

if I'm doing too much

because people

want me to do a lot.

You know, people are like,

oh, you're a hero, you're--

uh, ahem, you're, uh--

[COUGHS]

you're an inspiration,

so I'm, like, okay,

what can I keep doing to

continue to be an inspiration?

[PHONE RINGS]

Hello.

WOMAN:
Hi, is this Michel?

This is she.

Hi, Michel, it's Melanie,

and I am here

with Jim Eutizzi,

and then, um, a couple people

that I work with.

MICHEL:

Oh, okay.

How are y'all doin' today?

Good.

I'm here with my husband Steve,

and our baby Rivers.

And we've got a, uh--

A message to give Jim.

[BABY BABBLING]

That was from Rivers.

That was hello

from Rivers.

And from us, uh,

we wanted to let Jim know,

well, ask him if

he'd like to, uh--

To go to Italy with his son,

because we've already

bought him tickets

for about 12 days in June.

Here are your tickets.

[SOBBING]

Okay, Michel.

Well, does he

want to go or not?

MELANIE:

You want to go, right?

Oh, God.

I don't know what to say.

That is so awesome,

Melanie.

[INDISTINCT DIALOG]

I don't know what to say.

Hi, this is Kurt Warner,

and I support Team Gleason.

No white flags, baby.

Hi, I'm John Elway

for Team Gleason.

No white flags.

I'm Reverend Jesse Jackson.

I support Team Gleason.

No white flags.

I'm Mike McCready,

badass guitarist for

the greatest rock band ever,

Pearl Jam.

Hey, I'm--

I'm Steve Gleason.

I'm a totally incredible

human being

doing fantastic work

with Team Gleason.

Always remember.

Always remember,

BOTH:

no white flags.

[NO AUDIBLE DIALOG]

STEVE:

It's my belief that

most of what ALS takes away

from people,

technology can give back.

It transpires that

my oeuvre has evidentiary,

not literary, merit.

Damn it.

MICHEL:

You lose your voice

when you have ALS.

And so he found--

He researched this place

where you can actually,

um, voice bank,

so his mechanical voice,

instead of being like

Stephen Hawking,

his is gonna be his voice.

Senator Russ Feingold

of Wisconsin

also took himself

out of the running.

[]

Then it goes to

eye technology

where he talks with his eyes,

but he's talking

a letter at a time.

WOMAN:

When you see

the green dots in there,

that means it's

picking up on it,

on your eyes.

First, let's get back--

Get-- Get you back.

There you go.

Got it.

[]

Do you just get really--

As you get used to it,

can you do it--

Can you--

Can you do it faster?

WOMAN:

Oh, gosh, yes.

STEVE:

Hi Michel, you rock.

[WOMAN LAUGHING]

It's the first time today,

man, I watched, uh,

some of my videos

from last couple days,

and I listened to myself

and I was--

Sound--

Probably sound--

Sound ill. Sound sick.

And that, uh--

It's tough, man.

I've been thinking about

fathers and sons

a lot since you've been born.

And...

at this point it looks like

we're not going to have

the normal father-son

relationship.

I can't go out and play catch

with you.

I can't throw you

a batting practice.

But, uh, I want to do

everything I can

to be a good father, uh,

to give you what a son needs

from his father.

And, uh,

I'm gonna be around, buddy.

It's not gonna be easy,

but it's gonna be awesome.

And I'm gonna be around until

you are able

to stand on your own,

as a man.

MAN:

Steve, how old are you?

Do you know what

your weight is right now?

So it's gonna be

24 inches wide,

it's gonna have

the casters up here.

The casters up here,

you don't have 'em on this chair

because it's a little more

stable base.

[]

[INDISTINCT DIALOG]

STEVE:

It's crazy, man.

I am to the point where

I barely go out of the house

by myself.

Michel goes

everywhere with me now.

She helps me shower.

She helps me

put on my clothes.

She helps me eat.

You have a mom

who's just incredible.

Incredible.

Remarkable, amazing.

And we're both

so lucky to have her.

I think any caretaker,

you're always kind of there

trying to make things

easier for him.

I just feel like it's--

It is-- It's what I do,

and it's-- It's our

relationship, it's what we do,

it's-- It's just kind of, like,

part of our life,

like this is--

This is what it is.

So I set up things for him

in the morning,

I set up things for him

at night,

help him walk,

help him brush his teeth,

help him--

Help feed him,

and it's--

It's just kind of like

a new part of life.

Just like it is

learning how to

take care of Rivers.

[BABY COOING]

Mm, mm-mm-mm.

[INDISTINCT]

[BABY COOING]

[BABY FUSSING]

Hey.

Hey, man, you're okay.

STEVE:

Kids are a lot of

frickin' work, man.

And, uh, we get up

every three hours

to feed you,

and when I say we

I mean Michel.

You like that?

And I can see it's

taking a toll on Michel.

She's getting tired.

And I'm gonna

think of ways to, uh--

To help her,

either having someone

stay over at night,

or something, we gotta

figure out something

because I'd like to somehow

ease that, uh, burden

a little bit from her.

So do you-- Are you--

Are you in that?

I mean, are you familiar

with any of it,

are you in the--

I mean, you look,

you're obviously

in good shape.

I mean, like, you are--

Are you, like, in the

therapy world, or--

No.

No?

He's a neighbor and,

big enough, like,

he's going to move me

where she might not be able to.

You know, he was my hero.

This is the guy that

I wanted to be growing up.

Turned out, you know,

he was dating Michel,

and Michel used to

baby-sit me as a kid.

When he was diagnosed

she asked me--

She gave me an ultimatum.

She said, "Blair,

you either quit your job,

or I'm gonna kick you

in your dick."

[GROANING]

Blair and I's life purpose was

to make sure Steve was happy.

There's times where

Steve would say,

what am I doing?

What's the point?

This is awful.

And we'd be like,

okay, like, what can we do?

Do a dance, build him up.

And it was--

We had a f***ing

bad ass unit.

[]

MICHEL:

The journey into the lake,

part one.

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