He has been a police officer and FBI agent, As a teacher, he was runner-up for Kansas teacher of the year and won a state championship as a soccer coach at a high school. He has also been a high school principal.
In his spare time, he ran marathons, even running 40 miles on his 40th birthday in 2009, according to Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania.
Lolita Repp teaches language arts to middle-school students. She coaches cheerleaders and sells jewelry on the side.
Their life changed forever in 2012 when he became ill. Doctors first decided that Tracey had ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Then they diagnosed Parkinson’s. According to the Centre Daily Times, doctors realized he did not have either disease and prescribed other medicines. Someone else in the medical field suggested he needed psychological counseling.
According to the newspaper, a doctor in Columbia, Missouri., diagnosed Lyme disease, in 2015. Two years before that diagnosis, a CT scan found tumors in Tracey’ chest, with biopsies showing he had Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
When Tracey first became ill, “they had $60,000 in the bank,” and their home, “including the 16-by-40 foot swimming pool, was worth $234,000,” according to the newspaper.
The bills piled up. Lolita sold their home and spent the proceeds and their savings on pills, ambulance rides, hospitalizations and doctors. They lost their good credit rating and are now “$80,000 to $100,000 in debt, (Lolita’s estimate),” according to the newspaper.
Lolita cannot afford to have someone watch him while she teaches. “During seizures, he sometimes walks out the front door barefooted and out of his head,” the newspaper said. About 24 hours after Tracey has a seizure, he remembers that he has a wife and what her name is, Lolita told the newspaper.
Despite the hardships, despite the tremendous debt, Lolita wanted Tracey to understand her deep and lasting love for him. She commissioned a sign company to paint a sign for their home. For the words on the sign, she chose a passage in the Old Testament from the Song of Solomon 3:4.
She told the Centre Daily Times that Tracey had promised her that he would outlive her so that she would not have to live alone.
“Now they wondered whether he could keep that promise. The sign message would be a promise she planned to keep,” the newspaper said.
Discover more about the couple’s story and see family photos here. You will be glad that you did.
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