The Gentle Hearted Man
Garry , a selfless caregiver, amazing papa, and a righteous follower of Christ, through his ways of living he is truly an inspiration and leader to others. Many don’t know how to successfully live a life that is worth living. It is hard in this world to find a voice and to make something of your life. To live a life well does not mean that one lives a perfect life with no fault but instead it means that one lives a life that is impactful to those around. Early on in his life Garry found out that he was an intelligent fellow and a solid leader.
Become known as quite the troublemaker when he was growing up. He spent his first few years of life in England with his parents, Marlys and Dick, as well as his older brother Jeff. When his family came to America they had one more child, a little girl named Catherine. Growing up Garry found himself in hard spots always striving for attention because he was the middle child and often felt over looked. In high school everyone loved him and he loved the attention. He began bullying the under classmen and even some of the special needs students. Talking to Garry about his high school years made him fall apart in tears. Even to this this day Garry can’t forgive himself for how he treated Gregory Fletcher, a mentally ill man. This is how Garry recalls their friendship “Gregory do you want to be cool today?” I would as. “Yes” Gregory would respond as he stood at the head of the long lunch table where all of us cool kids would sit. “ok” I would say “go buy all of us some cinnamon rolls” he would smile and quickly run over to the line and return to us with fresh backed cinnamon rolls. While he would stand there, some buddies of mine would joke with him, knowing he wouldn’t understand. This was a game for all of us. Have the retarted kid spend all his money on us and in the end we would tease him and put him down. (Interview with Garry Montag)
One day he saw Gregory sitting alone and thought to himself, “how can I be so cruel to such an innocent human being who hasn’t done anything wrong”. Garry felt guilt, so he found out where he was living and arrived at his home. When Garry went to knock on the door a very kind older women answered it, which Garry would soon find out to be his mom. She went to call for Gregory and when he appeared he looked so excited. His mom said “Gregory talks about you often, thank you for being such a good friend to him.” When Garry heard that his heart sank into his stomach and knew that something needed to change. That was Garry’s first real realization in life that his values and the people surrounding him needed to change. Soon after visiting Gregory he began visiting him more and they had a unique friendship. Senior year Garry found Christ and trusted in him that he had a plan for his life. Garry went on to go to Oregon State University where he would meet the love of his life, Heather White. Heather was the ultimate catch, head of her dance team, and cheerleader for the Portland Timbers, smart, and a musical genius. He adored Heather so much he proposed to her a year after meeting. Although soon after the proposal something tragic happened. At only 19 years of age Heather began loosing the ability to walk, hold things, talk well, bathe on her own; the normal day to day activities. She had to undergo many medical observations for they couldn’t diagnose what she was going through. At first they though it was MS but soon declared it to be ALS. Garry stood by her even when others dropped her knowing that it was evil forces trying to stop them “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Garry believed that Christ knew what he was doing. Garry went with Heather to every doctor’s appointment he could. The doctors told him that a disease like ALS is incurable and that she would die within the next months or years. He had his faith in God and now 20 years later she