Stephen H. Smith

Place of Birth: Springfield, Ohio

Stephen H. Smith has passed away at the age of 47 in Kettering, Ohio. He has left behind his wife, Marilea Frasik Smith, and canine children, Elijah (Maltese) and Dixie (Bassador). His surviving parents are: Judy C. Smith (Engle) and Stephen G. Smith. He joins his grandma, Effie Geraldine Smith and his canine companion, Jessie.

He worked as a musician (bass guitarist) all of his life and his goal of writing and performing music with his wife were cut short when he lost his battle to Cancer due to chemotherapy complications.

Stephen graduated from Springfield North High School, class of 1985. He was heavily influenced by the metal group, Iron Maiden and wore an “Eddy” tattoo on his left shoulder to pay homage to the band that created his passion for music. He loved animals and was an advocate for rescuing unwanted dogs. He was a man of great intellect, charisma, charm and humor and he firmly believed in a humanistic approach to life in creating good karma.

Please join us for a short memorial/celebration of his life on: Tuesday, July 28th from 7pm -8pm at the Center for Spiritual Living in Kettering, Ohio.

Location: Center for Spiritual Living -4100 Benfield Dr., Kettering Ohio 45429; (937) 298-1376

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the :

Testicular Cancer Society at:

http://www.testicularcancersociety.org/donate.html

Testicular Cancer Society

1173 Alnetta Drive

Cincinnati, Ohio 45230

513-696-9827

Steve Smith was one of the best bass guitarists in the area and performed with some of the best musicians in the area in bands including: Paragon, Heartstoppers, Madewell (co-founded by Jeff Madewell), Madewell Escape, Madewell-Graham.

Steve lost his battle with Cancer on Friday, July 17th, 2015 at 12:32am. He had been diagnosed with Testicular Cancer Stage IIIc with had metastasized to his lungs and brain. He had surgery to remove a massive tumor, Versa HD Radiation for the brain tumors, and had barely finished round #1 of chemotherapy when he was admitted to E.R. and then I.C.U. at Kettering Hospital for a massive internal bacteria due to his fragility of his immune system. The medical staff at Kettering did everything they could to assist his condition during his 14 day stint in I.C.U. from July 3rd, 2015 to July 17th, 2015 where he finally lost his battle with cancer.

My husband was my ‘protector’, my lover, my soul mate, AND my best friend. My husband was fully aware of the longevity of life and in the last 2 & ½ months, knew the possibilities of his own mortality~ and he made peace with himself and his maker, as I heard him in the last 2 weeks of his life in a half conscience state of mind saying over and over again, ‘Leave me be, I’m just trying to enjoy this moment’., and

“Jesus IS a good man’., It was at that moment that I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my husband’s beautiful soul would be meeting his maker soon.

Lastly, I wanted to share with you my husband’s final minutes of life on earth and the metaphysical experience I had in the room minutes before he parted:

My sister in Law (Missy) and my brother (Tony) had come to visit us at the Kettering Hospital ICU on July 17th around 10pm the night he passed..... they brought some food for me to eat, as you don’t really think too much about eating when you are in such a crisis as this.... I know that I could not have kept my strength and sanity through this, had it not been for my sister in law, Missy and I have come to the conclusion that she is an ‘earth angel’. Tony & Missy left to go home from the hospital to their home in Lebanon about 11:45pm ish....when they left, I rolled the recliner chair in my usual position, right next to the hospital bed that Steve was lying in, positioned so that my right hand could easily hold his right hand which was so warm and comforting. I was in a position so I could keep track of his vitals on the monitor that I had been following carefully for the past 2 weeks~ all I had to do was open my eyes and I could see the numbers easily from my position. I knew that the doctor’s goal over the past 2 or 3 days was simply to make him, ‘comfortable’ as he made the ‘transition’ at his own pace. They asked me if I wanted them to remove all the wires that tracked his vitals that day, and I said, NO WAY! I had been following that monitor for 2 weeks and I wasn’t about to have it removed now, as I NEEDED that monitor now more than EVER, for some reason.

After Tony & Missy left, I fell asleep pretty quickly as I was exhausted and fell in a deep sleep within minutes of their departure. I was feeling so peaceful holding my husbands’ hand as I did every night and wishing that I could crawl in the bed with him and hold him tightly.......Suddenly, I was awoken from my deep sleep by a jolt of ‘electricity’ that traveled from his hand to my finger tips, then it slowly swept through my hand, and down my arm, and finally went through my body from top to bottom~ It was SO STRONG that it woke me from my deep sleep and made me jump out of my chair, as I threw the 3 blankets to the floor that I had wrapped up in. They kept the room at about 65 degrees as he had a fever for most of his stay in ICU.

Within seconds of jumping from the recliner, SARAH (night nurse for STeve’s room on 7/17) came RUNNING in the room and threw open the door to our room and I immediately asked, ‘WHAT HAPPENED?!?!” (referring to the electric shock I had just received) and she said, “Your husband just passed!” .... I immediately replied, ‘HOW DO YOU KNOW?!” and she said, because I have been watching his vital numbers from the nurses station for the last hour! I then turned my head toward the monitor and saw that the numbers were all zeros, and realized that he had passed! I then put two and two together, and realized that the jolt of energy that I received must have been his ‘life force’ that entered my body at the very moment that he passed.

I then told her about the jolt of electricity that I felt that sent me jumping out of my chair, and she seemed quite perplexed on top of being quite upset and seemingly bumbled....

The next evening, I told the story to my family, who met me to go to the Tobias funeral home to see his body for the last time~ when I explained about the electric jolt of electricity that I felt when he passed, my older brother Artie, who is the ‘logical’ and analytical sibling in the family, promptly explained that he felt quite certain that the reason I felt an electric jolt was because they more than likely had him hooked up to a type of ‘heart defibrillator that would automatically shock his system if his heart stopped beating.... When he said this, I had to find out., so this evening, I decided to phone the ICU unit that my husband spent the last 2 weeks fighting for his life in~ I asked to speak to SARAH, who should have been working that night as she was on her 3rd day in a row (they work 4 nites in a row and then got a break as I found out) and the nurse in charge told me that Sarah had taken OFF WORK and was not available! She must have been more affected by the experience then I initially suspected~ I talked to two different nurses on two separate days who both concluded that:

‘There is no way that the medical equipment that you husband was hooked up to could have caused that jolt of electrcity~ They both explained that my husband was only being ‘monitored’ for :

blood pressure

oxygen intake

number of breathes he took per each minute

temperate

He was totally off life support that I agreed to per his request, and they had strict orders for : DNR, (do not recessitate) and no CPR (per his initial requiest) AND there was no type of defibrillator shock or hook up that could have shocked him if his heart were to stop~ they were simply trying to make his transition as comfortable and painless as possible.

My husband’s love for me was so strong, that his life force entered my body when he passed and that is the gift he gave to me before he left this world. Through this journey, he learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that my love for him was ‘unconditional’. It was just ‘he and I’ from the beginning of our relationship and it was just ‘he and I’ when he parted.

John 3:16 “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

A Musician’s Search for Success….THE LIGHT…by Paul Gulsvig

There is an eastern philosophy that believes much like the big bang theory but that life started as this huge beautiful ball of beauty, truth, and knowledge, all things that are good.

This ball exploded into billions and billions of small shreds of light. They live in each of us. Our life’s mission is to find our own light and to expose the light of our fellow men and women.

So that….every life serves a single purpose. We are here to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better and to celebrate life.

Everything in life presents us with an opportunity to repair and restore the world or our ball of light. When we invest in our struggle, it deepens our meaning in life and deepens our Joy.