Kieron Patrick Finnegan
Kieron Patrick Finnegan was born on St. Patrick’s Day - March 17, 1961 - to Sandra and Michael Finnegan. The stars must have aligned perfectly on this day as his red hair and blue eyes imbued the landscape of his Irish heritage. Kieron was the second child to Sandra and Michael who would go on to have four more children. His childhood laid the foundation to his poetic soul. It was erratic and defined by the youth of his parents, but from his mother and father he felt unconditional love that gave him the confidence to follow his own voice. Kieron’s brothers and sisters allowed him to be the enlightened one; and when chaos would overtake, the possibility that a poet would ascend made everything seem tolerable.
And so his journey began, he went through high school with a love of sports and an absolute indifference to social status. He entered college and wrote for the student newspaper and lived in a small apartment, where at night he would write against the backdrop of a moonlit campus. After he earned his BA he went on to graduate school where he received a master’s of English. Every event in his life was punctuated by prose; his mind was his sanctuary. Kieron lived life through superlatives, he loved football season and would avidly watch games with his brothers and father. He equally enjoyed an impassioned discussion surrounding books, films and art. He was physically fit and a zealous runner. Kieron was a participant in life’s banquet and savored all its nuances; he was, and is, a loved man.
Kieron’s ambition was to become a writer and early in his career his work was noticed. He won a fiction writing competition in college and routinely mailed short stories to magazines for publication. His family knew it was a matter of time before he was published, but in his late thirties his thoughts began to unravel. He would lash out to anyone that represented authority and spoke extremely on most subjects. His manner of speech became disjointed and, at times, incoherent. He lost his job, car and home; he moved in with his parents and continued a downward spiral. His family thought he was suffering from depression and rallied to his defense. They went to great lengths to try and bring him back to the son, brother, uncle and friend they all so loved. He was first placed in rehab, then a group home and finally an assisted living facility. Nothing worked; his essence was completely disappearing to the utter dismay of his family.
Kieron’s parents continued to seek out professionals to try and find out what was happening to their boy. Countless doctor visits took place before there was a diagnosis; Kieron was suffering from Pick’s Disease, which is a rare and permanent form of dementia that shrinks the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. There is no cure. Kieron’s family stood motionless as the news was delivered. The fact that Kieron’s brain will cease to function over time was too painful to fathom. The hope that he could come back to the man they knew was gone and in its place was grief so powerful that there are no words.
Kieron currently lives in a nursing home where he spends his days sitting among the old and confused. At 47 years old he should have a job at a University where he is head of the English department. In this world he is married and spends weekends with his siblings and their children. But in reality he has Pick’s Disease and is fading from his family’s collective grasp.
