I knew that you all would want to know about Ed Rooker's condition so you can keep him in your thoughts and prayers. He was a former band director at Grimsley and admired by so many of us. He is fighting for his life right now in a Hospice Unit. 

This is the post from his daughter, Elaine, that was put up on caringbridge.org. This has all come on very suddenly. The Rookers had moved over a year ago to be near their daughter and grandchildren in Kentucky.

"Fast forward to Thursday morning (3.27): we were planning to go to a morning concert and my mother called me to tell me Daddy had had a very bad night and was in severe pain and in no shape to go to the concert.  His GP instructed us to take him to the hospital, which we did via ambulance.

A bunch of tests to try to figure out what was going on revealed a great deal more wrong with him than just his compression fracture, including advanced stage metastatic cancer. There is so much wrong with him that the most we can do is try to make him comfortable.

We love him, and we are caring for him, with the help of Hospice/Hosparus, but the man we knew is gone.  When the pain medicine wears off he is in excruciating pain and he is anxious and worried.  We (my mom and I) think he knows us but we're not sure.  We want you - and we're confident he would agree - to remember him as you do, and we're asking for, please, no visitors.  Your support and love mean the world to us."

Mr. Edgar Rooker was a decent, honorable individual.

Those who studied under him were fortunate.

Requiescat in Pace

R. Clayton, MD